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RAPHAEL 
 
" Raphael of Vrbino — an example of the 
 prodigal gifts of Nature, fair in body, 
 fairer in mind, charming in manner, 
 admirable in art, unwearied in labour, 
 eternal in glory ." 
 
 Joachim Sandrart 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 BY JULIA CARTWRIGHT 
 
 (MRS. ADY) 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK 
 
 RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY 
 
A:cbo(d 
 
 m . 
 
 A5i( 
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT 
 
 THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
 
 LONDON 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. RAPHAEL'S PLACE IN ART 9 
 
 II. URBINO (1483-1500) 14 
 
 III. PERUGIA (1500-1504) 25 
 
 IV. FLORENCE. EARLY MADONNAS (1504-1506) 35 
 
 V. FLORENCE. THE MADONNAS, AND ENTOMB- 
 MENT (1 506-1 508) , 47 
 
 VI. ROME. THE VATICAN STANZE (1508-15 14) 57 
 
 VII. ROME. MADONNAS AND PORTRAITS (1 508-1516) 75 
 
 VIII. RAPHAEL AS ARCHITECT AND DECORATOR 
 
 (1513-1518) 88 
 
 IX. LAST YEARS (1517-1520) 101 
 
LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES 
 
 Facing P- 
 
 MADONNA DEL GRAN DUCA. Pitti Frontispiece 
 
 PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL BY TIMOTEO VITI. Oxford 20 
 
 VISION OF A KNIGHT. National Gallery 22 
 
 THREE GRACES. Chantilly 24 
 
 STUDY OF THE ANNUNCIATION. Louvre 24. 
 
 MADONNA CONESTABILE. St. Petersburg 26 
 
 ST. SEBASTIAN. Bergamo 28 
 
 PERUGINO. Borghese Gallery 28 
 
 MADONNA. Sposalizio — Brera 30 
 
 GROUP OF MAIDENS. Sposalizio— Brera 30 
 
 ANGIOLO DONI. Pitti 38 
 
 MADDALENA DONI. Pitti 38 
 
 STUDY FOR MADDALENA DONI. Louvre 40 
 
 STUDY OF MADONNA BY TIMOTEO VITI. British 
 
 Museum 42 
 
 MADONNA D'ORLEANS. Chantilly 42 
 
 ST. GEORGE. Louvre 44 
 
 PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH. Budapest 46 
 
 7 
 
LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES 
 
 Facing p. 
 
 RAPHAEL. Uffizi 4 6 
 
 MADONNA DEL CARDELLINO. Uffizi 4« 
 
 LA BELLE JARDINIERE. Louvre 5° 
 
 DANTE. Vatican Stanze 60 
 
 SAVONAROLA. Vatican Stanze 62 
 
 PLATO. Vatican Stanze 64 
 
 MADONNA DI FOLIGNO. Vatican 74 
 
 POPE JULIUS II. Pitti 76 
 
 POPE LEO X. Pitti 7» 
 
 PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL BY SEBASTIANO DEL 
 
 PIOMBO. Budapest 80 
 
 BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE. Louvre 82 
 
 CARDINAL BIBBIENA. Prado 84 
 
 LA DONNA VELATA. Pitti 86 
 
 ST. CECILIA. Bologna , 88 
 
 GALATEA. Farnesina 94 
 
RAPHAEL'S PLACE IN ART 
 
 RAPHAEL of Urbino has been acclaimed by- 
 common consent in past ages as the prince of 
 ■ It alian painters, and in spite ol many turns 
 in the wheel of Fortune and many changes of time 
 and fashion, his supremacy remains practically undis- 
 puted to this day. There will always be some critics 
 who challenge his title to this place, and to whom 
 the very perfection of his art is a stumbling-block 
 and an offence. There are others who deny his 
 creative powers and declare that he was only gifted 
 with talent of a very high order.. It is of course true 
 that Raphael was not a painter of original genius 
 in the same sense as Leonardo or Michelangelo, as 
 Giorgione or Mantegna. He did not break new 
 ground or sweep away old traditions to make way for 
 types and conceptions of his own. But hejx>ssessed, in 
 a measure rarely given to any human being, the power 
 of absorbing and assimilating the impressions which 
 he received from a thousand different quarters. Not 
 only "in aft, but in every other branch of human learn- 
 ing, in history, philosophy, poetry, in the study of 
 classical authors and of contemporary literature, of 
 architecture and archaeology, he was always acquiring 
 new knowledge and drinking in all that was best 
 and fairest in the world about him. Each picture or 
 bas-relief that he saw, each scholar whom he met, 
 
 9 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 became a fresh spring of inspiration, a new source of 
 . strength. When Michelangelo told Condivi, in appa- 
 rent disparagement of his great rival, that Raphael 
 of Urbino owed less to nature than to study, he spoke 
 the absolute truth. , This immense and unwearied 
 diligence, this passion for acquiring knowledge, was 
 the painter's most characteristic feature, and marked 
 his career from beginning to end. In his boyhood, 
 how quickly, yet how perfectly, did he learn the 
 lessons taught him by his first masters at Urbino and 
 Perugia ! When he went to Florence, it was to 
 learn " per imparare," as his patroness Duchess 
 Giovanna wrote — to enter practically on another 
 apprenticeship in a new and famous school. And in 
 those wonderful Roman years when he stood at the 
 height of his renown and was the favourite of Popes 
 and princes, we read how he sat at the feet of the 
 crabbed old humanist who had mastered the secrets 
 of Vitruvius and listened humbly and reverently to his 
 words, " counting it still the greatest joy in life to 
 learn." But while he was always receiving fresh 
 impressions and learning new lessons, he never forgot 
 the old. The ideas which he had acquired in early 
 youth, the forms which he had borrowed from Timoteo 
 Viti or Perugino, appear again in the paintings of his 
 Roman days and meet us even in the works of his 
 scholars. In a marvellous way he knew how to select 
 and combine, to alter J^nd v adapt these different 
 motives to his own uses, j By his ^ntimate knowledge 
 of the laws of composition, "acknowledge due in great" 
 part to his reverent loyalty for the great traditions of 
 the past, by his unerring instinct for^ rhythm and 
 exquisite sense of beauty, he was able to blend and 
 transform all of these separate elements into one 
 perfect and harmonious wholeJjHis own pure taste 
 and delicate feeling lent the final touch, and his 
 10 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 claim to originality, it has been truly said, was his 
 excellence^ Nature, in Vasari's phrase, had endowed 
 this fortunate child of genius not only with the rarest 
 powers of mind, but with personal beauty, grace, 
 industry, modesty, and goodness — gifts, remarks the 
 Aretine, "that are seldom seen in artists, who com- 
 monly have something strange and savage in their 
 character, which, besides making them moody and 
 fantastic, often gives rise to low and vicious habits, 
 and darkens the splendour of their creations." No 
 such contrast ever made itself felt in the life of Raphael. 
 The gracious spirit of the man revealed itself in the 
 charm and serenity of his work. For once in the 
 history of the human race, Plato's dream was realized, 
 and the world saw a painter whose own beautiful 
 nature was in perfect harmony with his art ; whose 
 creations, " like a health-giving breeze from a purer 
 region, drew the soul insensibly into sympathy with 
 the beauty of reason." 
 
 " Raphael's nature and achievement," wrote Goethe, 
 " were so perfectly balanced that we may confidently 
 say no modern artist ever attained to such purity and 
 completeness of thought, or to such clearness of ex- 
 pression. His art is, as it were, a draught of fresh 
 water from the purest spring. He feels, thinks, and 
 works exactly as if he were a Greek." ["So, while 
 Leonardo, in the great German's words, " thought 
 himself weary " and frittered away long years of his 
 life in technical researches and fruitless experiments, 
 while Michelangelo wasted half of his existence in 
 quarrying marble and wrangling with his employers, 
 Raphael's whole life was spent in working at his art 
 with joyous and ever-increasing facilityj In the few 
 short years which were all that the Fates allowed 
 him, he not only accomplished more than any of his 
 contemporaries, but by the simplicity of his genius and 
 
 II 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 the clearness of his language he appealed to a far 
 larger circle. 
 
 Michelangelo's stupendous creations may impress 
 us more profoundly ; the magic of Leonardo's art 
 may attract us by a more subtle spell ; but for the 
 vast majority of the human race, Raphael will always 
 remain the greatest and most popular of painters. 
 Even Titian can hardly rival him in this respect. 
 The art of the mighty Venetian, who lived more than 
 twice as long, retaining the glow and passion of youth 
 to the last, is more complex in its aims and less simple 
 and direct in its appeal to mankind at large. Raphael, 
 on the contrary, speaks to us in a language which all 
 can understand, and the range of his sympathies is 
 as wide as human nature itself. On the one hand, 
 his frescoes of Galatea and the School of Athens embody 
 the highest and noblest dreams of the Renaissance ; 
 on the other, his cartoons of Christ and the Apostles 
 fixed the types that were employed by all future artists 
 and influenced popular conceptions of Bible subjects 
 for centuries to come. If the living portraits which 
 he has left us of his most illustrious contemporaries 
 are of priceless value in the eyes of the historical 
 student, the divine beauty and tenderness of his 
 Madonnas appeal to the humblest and most ignorant 
 among us. No pictures have been so often copied and 
 reproduced as these ; none, we may safely assert, have 
 ever been so universally admired and beloved. 
 
 In this country the most serious blow to the 
 prestige which Raphael's name has enjoyed during 
 the last four centuries came from Ruskin and the Pre- 
 Raphaelite school of painters. The great teacher 
 who opened our eyes to the beauty and wonder of 
 early Italian art, who lavished his eloquent praises 
 alike on Giotto and Bellini, on Tintoretto and Luini, 
 would have nothing to say to Raphael. He never 
 12 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 forgave the painter of the Stanze for the academic 
 style and pagan tendencies of his art, and condemned 
 his noblest creations as melancholy productions of 
 the decadence. Ruskin's followers imitated his ex- 
 ample, and in their blind worship of the primitives 
 boldly announced that the only art that was holy and 
 sincere existed before the age of Raphael. For a time 
 the great Urbinate's name became a term of reproach, 
 and it seemed as if his works were to be allowed to 
 sink into neglect and oblivion. But the more scientific 
 criticism of recent years has come to the rescue of 
 Raphael's fame. Morelli, the founder of these new 
 and more accurate methods, was the first to brush 
 aside the fables which had gathered round the master's 
 name, and to prove that the vast mass of inferior 
 work hitherto ascribed to Sim was produced by 
 other hands. The critics who followed in the steps 
 of this able connoisseur and the students who devoted 
 themselves to historical research in the same field 
 have added largely to our knowledge and understanding 
 of the man and his art. They have taught us to dis- 
 criminate between the works of Raphael himself and 
 those of his followers, and helped us to realize that we 
 can only form a true appreciation of the master's 
 style by a patient and minute study of his own drawings. 
 Thus alone shall we be able to recognize the sublime 
 grandeur of his invention, his marvellous skill in 
 composition, the infinite beauty and perfection of 
 his art. 
 
 13 
 
II 
 
 RAPHAEL AT URBINO 
 
 1483-1500 
 
 IT was fitting that the painter whose art was the 
 finest flower of the Renaissance should have 
 his birthplace at Urbino. Here, in this narrow 
 strip of land between Umbria and the Marches, on 
 the road leading from Rome to Venice and Ferrara, 
 the Montefeltro dukes reigned over a loyal and con- 
 tented people and made their court the meeting- 
 place of the foremost scholars and artists of the age. 
 Here on the mountain heights, Luciano di Lauranna, 
 the Dalmatian architect, reared that stately palace 
 which in its decay is still one of the wonders of the 
 world, and Duke Federico brought painters and 
 sculptors from all parts of Italy to adorn its spacious 
 halls. The noblest youths and most distinguished 
 humanists were attracted by the fame of the rare 
 books which the Duke had collected from all parts of 
 the world, counting them his most priceless treasure — 
 and might be seen poring over Greek and Latin 
 manuscripts in the ducal library. Down below in the 
 market-place merchants and women read the latest 
 poems or discussed Dante and Petrarch, while the good 
 Duke himself moved freely to and fro among his 
 subjects, talking with the peasants who came in 
 from the country, and greeting the brides who were 
 
 H 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 on their way to church with chivalrous courtesy. 
 Here Raphael was born, on the 6th of April 1483. 
 His father, Giovanni Santi, was closely connected with 
 the ducal family in his twofold capacity of Court 
 painter and poet. One of his contemporaries de- 
 scribes him as the Duke's painter, who is also a disciple 
 of the Muses. Another speaks of him as a second 
 Dante. The Santi were originally natives of Col- 
 bordolo, a pleasant village on the mountain slopes 
 above the valley of the Foglia, looking over Pesaro 
 and the Adriatic, but their house was destroyed when 
 Sigismondo Malatesta invaded the duchy in 1446 
 and laid the country waste. Four years afterwards, 
 being threatened with another invasion, they took 
 shelter in Urbino, where Giovanni's father opened a 
 shop and carried on a flourishing business as a dealer 
 in corn and oil. In 1461 he was already the owner 
 of a fertile meadow with a stream of running water, 
 and three years later bought a house in the steep street 
 at the corner of the market-place, known as the 
 Contrada del Monte, now called the Contrada Raffaello. 
 Giovanni must have been born while his father still 
 lived at Colbordolo, for in the dedication of his 
 " Chronicle " to Duke Guidobaldo he recalls the 
 sad day when " flames devoured the paternal nest, 
 and consumed all our substance. It would take too 
 long," he goes on, " to tell of the steep and rugged 
 precipices where my path has lain since then ; enough 
 to say that after many different attempts to earn a 
 living, I devoted my life to the wonderful art of 
 painting, of which glorious calling I am not ashamed 
 to call myself the servant." He probably received 
 his artistic training from Melozzo da Forli, who worked 
 in the ducal palace at Urbino from 1474 to 1476, and 
 decorated the library with frescoes of the Arts and 
 Sciences. Giovanni was evidently closely connected 
 
 is 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 with this master, to whom he alludes in his 
 " Chronicle " as " Melozzo a me si caro " — and may- 
 even have accompanied him to Rome, since a painter 
 of his name is mentioned as Melozzo's assistant in 
 the payments made by the papal Treasurer. The 
 frescoes and altar-pieces which he executed between 
 1482 and 1493, in the churches of Urbino and the 
 neighbourhood, show a marked likeness to Melozzo's 
 works both in type and feeling. Another painter 
 with whom he was on friendly terms, Piero della 
 Francesca, lodged in the house of Santi when he 
 came to Urbino in 1469 to paint an altar-piece 
 for the confraternity of Corpus Christi, and at 
 the same time executed his admirable portraits of 
 the Duke Federico and his wife Battista Sforza, the 
 Duchess whose " modest and majestic eye " Gio- 
 vanni praises in his poem. But the artist whom he 
 extols as foremost among living masters is Andrea 
 Mantegna, whose Triumphs he saw at Mantua 
 when, in i486, he accompanied the young Duke 
 Guidobaldo to visit his betrothed bride Elisabetta 
 Gonzaga, and to whom he pays a splendid tribute 
 in his poem : 
 
 Messer Andrea che in cio tien lo impero. 
 
 When he was about forty years of age, Giovanni 
 Santi married Magia Ciarla, the daughter of an 
 Urbino tradesman, who brought him a dowry of 
 one hundred and fifty florins and bore him three 
 children, only one of whom survived infancy. This 
 was the babe whom Giovanni painted in his mother's 
 arms on a wall in the courtyard of his house, in a faded 
 fresco that is still preserved within. We recognize 
 Magia's gentle face, small head, and slender neck 
 in the altar-piece which her husband painted in 1489 
 for the remote convent of Montefiorentino, while, 
 16 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 according to an old tradition, the boy Raphael himself 
 figures as an angel, with long chestnut locks and large 
 brown eyes, in a fresco that is still preserved in the 
 Dominican church at Cagli. These two last paintings 
 are among the best of Santi's works. Both are framed 
 on the conventional Umbrian pattern, with rich 
 architectural backgrounds, and are executed with 
 great care and conscientiousness and not without a 
 sweetness of expression in which the father seems to 
 anticipate the son. But in October 1491 Magia 
 Ciarla died, and the painter lost both his wife and 
 mother within a few days. Six months later the 
 burden of these domestic cares, of which he complains 
 in his epistle to the Duke as a perpetual weariness, 
 moved him to seek consolation in a second marriage, 
 and he took to wife the young daughter of a gold- 
 smith named Bernardina di Parte. The death of 
 his beloved master, the Duke Federico, which took 
 place at Ferrara in 1482, was another loss which the 
 painter felt keenly, but he found a kind and generous 
 master in Federico's son and successor, Guidobaldo. 
 When, in 1488, the new Duke celebrated his marriage 
 with Elisabetta Gonzaga, Giovanni composed, a 
 dramatic representation in honour of the occasion, 
 and introduced Juno and all the gods of Olympus 
 to sing the praises of Hymen and welcome the youthful 
 bride to Urbino. Two years afterwards he went to 
 Sinigaglia at the request of Guidobaldo's sister, 
 Giovanna, the wife of the Prefect of Rome, and 
 painted an altar-piece of the Annunciation in the 
 Franciscan church, as a thank-offering for the birth 
 of her son, Francesco della Rovere, on Lady-day, 
 1490. 
 
 It was during these last years of his life that Giovanni 
 Santi composed the long " Chronicle " of the life 
 and heroic deeds of Duke Federico on which his 
 
 b 17 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 reputation as a poet chiefly rests. This epic consists 
 of twenty-three thousand lines and is written in 
 terza-rima, in evident imitation of the " Divina 
 Commedia." In a prologue full of tender melancholy, 
 the poet tells us how one autumn day, when the 
 leaves were turning yellow and the flowers had faded 
 on hill and vale, he lay down under the boughs of a 
 spreading beech and, oppressed with the burden and 
 weariness of life, mused sadly over its misery until he 
 fell asleep. Suddenly he heard a voice bidding him 
 wake and waste no more precious time in slumber, 
 and a shining form, whom he recognized as the 
 historian Plutarch, led him to the temple of Mars, 
 where he witnessed the triumphal entry of Duke 
 Federico into the hall of the Immortals. Then 
 waking from his dream, he proceeds to sing the dead 
 hero's praises and recount his glorious deeds in peace 
 and war. The poem contains many remarkable 
 episodes such as the description of the palace of 
 Urbino and the well-known passage on contemporary 
 painters and sculptors. It throws light on many 
 incidents in the history of the period and is full of 
 lyrical beauties, but for us its chief interest lies in the 
 fact that it helps us to realize the moral and intellectual 
 atmosphere in which Raphael grew up. It shows us 
 what manner of man his father was, and reveals the 
 extent and variety of his culture, his wide knowledge 
 of classical literature and contemporary art, the force 
 of his character and the sincerity of his religious 
 feeling. Throughout the poem we find the same 
 sense of moral responsibility and of the high service 
 to which the artist is pledged. " In art you have 
 to give your all," the poet writes. " The smallest 
 work demands the whole man, and sad and con- 
 temptible indeed is he* who wastes in idleness and 
 pleasure the precious time which can never return." 
 18 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 And all through we trace the sarrfe strain of Virgilian 
 sadness, of yearning for repose and quiet life, the same 
 mournful sense of the vanity of human effort and pro- 
 found conviction of the shortness and uncertainty of 
 life : 
 
 Vedendo il breve e vil peregrinate 
 Che noi facciam per que sto j also mondo. 
 
 No doubt this melancholy was partly due to failing 
 health and that presentiment of coming doom which 
 already overshadowed the poet-painter's soul. 
 
 • From the first the young Duchess Elisabetta had 
 shown great regard for Giovanni, and by her desire 
 he visited Mantua in the summer of 1493 to paint 
 the portrait of her sister-in-law, Isabella d'Este. 
 This brilliant lady had been by no means satisfied 
 with Mantegna's portrait of herself and was not 
 much better pleased with Sahti's work, " although this' 
 painter," she wrote, " has the reputation of taking 
 excellent likenesses." Unfortunately before the pic- 
 ture was finished Giovanni fell ill of malarial fever and 
 was compelled to return to the healthier air of Urbino. 
 There he recovered so far as to finish the Marchesa's 
 portrait early in the following January, and made some 
 progress with two portraits of Duchess Elisabetta 
 and her younger brother Sigismondo, which he was 
 executing for the Marquis. But a return of fever 
 once more interrupted his labours, and after lingering 
 through the summer months he died on the 1st of 
 August. " About twenty days ago," wrote Elisa- 
 betta on the 19th to her sister-in-law Isabella, " our 
 painter, Giovanni dei Sancti, passed out of this life, 
 in full possession of his reason and in the most excellent 
 disposition of mind. May God grant him pardon." 
 
 While the poor artist's widow and brother wrangled 
 over his modest fortune, the young Raphael, thus left 
 
 J 9 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 an orphan at the age of eleven, was brought up by 
 his uncle Simone Ciarla, who acted a father's part by 
 the child. He it was who, seeing the boy's promise, 
 apprenticed him to the only painter of note then 
 living in Urbino. This was Timoteo Viti, who, 
 after spending five years in the shop of Francia, at 
 Bologna, returned to his native city in April 1495, 
 and settled there for the rest of his life. 
 
 Morelli, it is well known, was the first to point out 
 that Raphael must have received his early training 
 from this Urbino master, and the fact that Santi's 
 scholar, Evangelista di Pian di Mileto, to whom 
 Elisabetta Gonzaga alludes in her letter as Giovanni's 
 " garzone," afterwards became Timoteo's assistant 
 seems to confirm this theory. Another proof of the 
 connexion that existed between the two painters 
 at this period is to be seen in the chalk drawing of 
 Raphael by Timoteo's hand, now' in the University 
 Galleries at Oxford. In this boy of fifteen or sixteen, 
 with the delicate features and gentle expression on 
 his serious face, and the cap resting on his long locks, 
 we have, it is plain, a portrait of the youthful Raphael 
 in the days when he was a pupil in Timoteo's workshop. 
 But the best confirmation of Morelli's theory lies in 
 the close resemblance that is to be found in the 
 style of the two painters. In the first pictures which 
 Timoteo painted after his return to Urbino, the 
 Madonna with S. Vitale and, S. Crescenzio, now in 
 the Brera, which originally hung in the Cathedral of 
 his native city, the S. A-pollonia of the ducal palace 
 and the 5. Margaret at Bergamo, we see the broad 
 hands and feet, the oval faces and drooping heads, the 
 graceful air and naive feeling that marked the early 
 works of Raphael. This is especially the case with the 
 figure of S. Vitale' in the Brera altar-piece, which 
 long bore the name of Raphael, and justifies Morelli's 
 20 
 
My permission of Messrs. jsraiett, Clement. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL BY TIMOTEO VITI (OXFORD). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 remark that Timoteo was Raphaelesque before, 
 Raphael. Vasari also notices this resemblance, and 
 tells us that, in his time, Timoteo's descendants still 
 possessed letters which had been addressed to the 
 artist by Raphael, but explains this connexion by. 
 saying that Viti was the scholar instead of the teacher 
 of Raphael, careless of the fact that these works were 
 painted when the great master was a child of twelve. 
 Timoteo, whom Vasari describes as a lively youth of 
 six-and-twenty, passionately fond of music, soon won 
 the affections of his scholar, and the two painters 
 became fast friends. 
 
 From his father Raphael had inherited his poetic 
 nature and cultured tastes, his strength of will and 
 elevation of character. Now in Timoteo's workshop 
 he acquired that peculiar grace and tender feeling 
 which marked his early works, together with those 
 Ferrarese types and characteristics which his teacher 
 had learnt from Francia and Costa at Bologna. 
 
 The first picture which we can with certainty 
 ascribe to Raphael is the Vision of a Knight, which 
 hangs in the National Gallery, together with the pen- 
 and-ink sketch from which it was traced. The 
 subject may have been suggested by the ancient 
 myth. of the choice of Hercules or borrowed from 
 some mediaeval romance. A youth in helmet and 
 armour lies sleeping on his shield under a laurel-tree 
 between two maidens, one of whom, in purple raiment, 
 bears a book and a sword in her hand ; while the other, 
 gaily clad in a blue robe with cherry-coloured sleeves 
 and coral beads in her hair, offers him a myrtle sprig. 
 Every detail in the forms, the dress and bearing of 
 the maidens, the type of their faces and folds of their 
 skirts, the hands and features of the sleeping boy, the 
 low rounded hills of the landscape, the towers on the 
 river banks, recall Timoteo's works ; while the timid 
 
 21 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 execution and childlike sentiment bear witness to the 
 youth and inexperience of the painter. The same 
 careful drawing and naive feeling, the same miniature- 
 like finish, appear in two other little pictures which 
 belong to the same period. One of these is the St. 
 Michael of the Louvre, which Raphael painted on 
 the back of a draught-board and which may have 
 been presented by Guidobaldo to the French king 
 Louis XII when, in 1505, he conferred the order 
 of St. Michael on the Duke's nephew, Francesco 
 della Rovere, since it was seen by Lomazzo at Fon- 
 tainehleau in 1548. The other is the nude group of 
 the Three Graces at Chantilly, which, like the Vision 
 . of a Knight, hung in the palace at Urbino until the 
 ducal collections were taken to Rome in the seventeenth, 
 century. The winged archangel brandishing his 
 sword aloft as he tramples on the dragon at his feet 
 might have stepped out of some nursery fairy-tale, 
 while the smoking towers of the city of Dis in the 
 background, and the lost souls tortured by grotesque 
 demons or weighed down by leaden capes " like the 
 hooded monks of Cologne," were evidently copied 
 from some miniatures which adorned one of the 
 manuscripts of the " Divina Commedia " in the ducal - 
 library. The Three Graces, with their soft cheeks 
 and rounded limbs, each holding a golden apple 
 and wearing a coral string, are just as plainly copied 
 from some Greek gem or cameo in the Duke's collec- 
 tion, and show that the young artist had inherited 
 his father's taste for classical subjects as well as his 
 love of Dante. Here, again, the low green hills of the 
 landscape and the sister Graces are of true Ferrarese 
 type, while St. Michael's oval face and green wings 
 recall the S. Vitale of the Brera altar-piece. 
 
 Timoteo, we know, succeeded to the office which 
 Giovanni Santi held at the ducal court, and erected 
 22 
 
VISION OF A KNIGHT (NATIONAL GALLERY). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 triumphal arches and arranged pageants on festive 
 occasions. He also decorated a hall in the palace with 
 figures of Apollo, Pallas, and the Nine Muses. His 
 young scholar no doubt helped him in this task, and 
 may well have attracted the attention of the gentle 
 Duchess, who, we learn from a seventeenth-century 
 writer, the architect Serlio, befriended the boy for 
 his father's sake and started him on the road to fortune. 
 These three little pictures, which were the first- 
 fruits of Raphael's genius, breathe the very air of 
 that ideal Court where Elisabetta sang lines from 
 Virgil and sonnets of Petrarch to her lute, and knights 
 and ladies talked of love and art and glory, through the 
 , summer nights, till dawn broke over the far Apennines. 
 And they foreshadow in a remarkable manner the 
 great master's future triumphs in the different cycles 
 of classical study, romantic poetry, and Christian 
 legend. 
 
 Two larger and more important works were also 
 executed by the young painter while he was still 
 under the direct influence of Timoteo Viti. Both 
 • of these commissions reached him from the Umbrian 
 town of Citta di Castello, whose rulers, the Vitelli, 
 were on friendly terms with the Duke of Urbino. 
 One was a processional banner for the confraternity 
 of the Blessed Trinity which is still preserved in the 
 Museum of Citta di Castello. It was probably painted 
 to commemorate deliverance from the plague which 
 ravaged this town in 1499, since S. Sebastian and 
 S. Roch, whose protection was especially sought on 
 these occasions, are represented at the foot of the 
 Cross. The paintings on both sides of the banner 
 are utterly ruined, but the design, of the Creation of 
 Eve, is plainly of Ferrarese origin ; while the repre- 
 sentation of the Trinity bears a marked resemblance 
 to the altar-piece of the same subject executed by 
 
 2 3 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Timoteo Viti, according to Vasari, soon after his 
 return to Urbino in 1495, and recently discovered in 
 the church of the Cappuccini at Milan. The other 
 was the Coronation of S. Nicholas of Tole'ntino, which 
 young Raphael painted for the Augustinian friars, 
 but which was sold to Pope Pius VI and perished at 
 the time of the French invasion in 1798. Two panels 
 of the predella originally attached 1 to his picture are, 
 however, still in existence : the Legend of S. Nicholas 
 saving four youths from execution in Sir Frederick Cook's 
 Collection at Richmond, and the Miracle of the Saint 
 raising three children to life in the public gallery at 
 Lisbon. Both of these little pictures are marked 
 by- the same timid drawing and delicate colour as 
 Raphael's other youthful works, and bear the same 
 close relation to Timoteo's style. The attitude of 
 the executioner in the Richmond panel is the same 
 as that of the little St. Michael in the Louvre, and the 
 kneeling form in the background recalls that of the 
 Princess Sabra in the St. George ; but the types in the 
 Lisbon picture strongly resemble those of Viti, and 
 the foreshortened figure of the murdered youth is 
 borrowed from one of the Apostles in a little picture 
 of Christ on the Mount of Olives by the same master. 
 The landscape, with its low green hills, church towers, 
 and winding river, betrays the same origin, while the 
 same mountain ash trees with their slender stems and 
 sharply defined foliage — such as we often meet with 
 in the hill-country of Umbria to-day — appear in both 
 panels. Everything about these interesting little 
 fragments seems to confirm Lanzi's statement that 
 this altar-piece was painted by Raphael in 1500, 
 when he was seventeen, and before he had yet 
 thrown off the influence of his first master to imitate 
 Perugino. 
 
 24 
 
By permission gj Messrs. Bratm, Uet'ient. 
 
 THREE GRACES (CHANTILLY). 
 

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 RAPHAEL AT PERUGIA 
 
 i 500-1 504 
 
 IN the summer of 1499 Raphael was still in 
 Urbino, and appeared in the Bishop's Court as 
 a party in a lawsuit brought by his step- 
 mother against his uncle, the priest Bartolommeo 
 Santi. But, in the following May, when the case was 
 decided, his absence from Urbino is expressly men- 
 tioned by the public notary who acted " pro dicto 
 Raffaele absente." By this time, we may conclude, 
 he had gone to Perugia and joined the large band 
 of assistants who were then working in Perugino's 
 bottega. The great Umbrian master was well known 
 in Urbino. Giovanni Santi speaks of him in his poem 
 as a " divine painter," and in 1498 he had executed 
 an altar-piece at Sinigaglia for Duke Guidobaldo's 
 sister, Giovanria della Rovere. He was now at the 
 height of his popularity, and had lately returned from 
 Florence to undertake the decoration of the Hall of 
 the Exchange in his native city. Perugino had pro- 
 bably been personally acquainted with Giovanni, 
 but whether he had known the father or not, the son's 
 talents quickly attracted his attention. Pietro, writes 
 Vasari, was delighted with young Raphael's charming 
 nature and skill in drawing, and pronounced that he 
 would soon become a great painter. 
 
 25 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Raphael on his part felt all the fascination of the 
 Umbrian master's art, and as in his childish days he. 
 had absorbed the grace and sincerity of Timoteo's 
 style, so now in his young manhood he surrendered 
 himself wholly to Perugino's influence. So closely, 
 Vasari tells us, did he imitate Messer Pietro's manner 
 in every particular that it was impossible to distin- 
 guish his works from those of his master. This is 
 certainly true of the first independent altar-pieces 
 which Raphael painted after he became Perugino's 
 assistant, the Crucifixion in the Mond Collection, 
 which was originally painted for a Dominican church 
 at Citta di Castello, and the Coronation of the Virgin 
 in the Vatican. The composition of the Crucifixion 
 closely resembles Perugino's rendering of the same 
 subject in S. Francesco del Monte at Perugia ; the 
 clear Umbrian sky and landscape with its wide horizons, . 
 gentle slopes, and winding stream, are all in his usual 
 style. " Had it not been for the words * Raphael 
 Urbinas,' which the young painter wrote at the foot 
 of the Cross," says Vasari, " this altar-piece would 
 certainly have passed for Pietro's work." The figure 
 of Christ is copied from a Crucifixion which Perugino 
 painted for the Calza Brotherhood ; that of St. John 
 from his Deposition in the Pitti ; the Virgin, Magdalene, 
 and St. Jerome are borrowed from the well-known 
 fresco in the refectory of the Cistercian monks in 
 Florence. But in each instance the attitude and 
 gesture of the figure are more natural, the expression 
 of love and sorrow more, genuine. The whole, we 
 realize, is inspired by a deeper sincerity, a truer and 
 finer feeling. The Coronation was painted in 1504, by 
 order of a widowed lady, Maddalena degli Oddi, for 
 a chapel in the Cathedral of Perugia, and after being 
 carried off to Paris in 1798, was restored in 18 15 to 
 the Pope and placed in the Vatican. The upper 
 26 
 
Ay permission Gf Messrs. Rraun, CUtHtttt 
 
 MADONNA CONESTABILE (ST. PETERSBURG) 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 part is borrowed from the altar-piece which Perugino 
 had executed a year or two before for the Friars of 
 Vallombrosa. But instead of representing single 
 figures of saints, as his master had done in the lower 
 part of the picture, Raphael introduces the twelve 
 Apostles standing round the empty tomb, which is 
 filled with blossomings flowers, and looking up at the 
 vision of the ascending Virgin. The bright colouring 
 and deep shadows, the cherub faces and the clouds in 
 the evening sky are all in Perugino's manner, but the 
 Arigel playing the violin recalls Timoteo's style, and 
 the head of St. James, with the yearning gaze in his 
 upturned eyes, is borrowed from one of Pinturicchio's 
 studies. Pietro's influence again predominates in 
 the three subjects of the predella attached to this 
 altar-piece, the Annunciation, Presentation, and Adora- 
 tion of the Magi. In designing the two first, Raphael 
 adapted Perugino's similar compositions in S. Maria 
 Nuova of Fano, refining and improving them after 
 his wont. The drawing of the Annunciation, still 
 preserved in the Louvre, is one of the loveliest ren- 
 derings of this familiar theme. The stately columns 
 and tessellated pavement of the portico where the 
 Virgin receives the heavenly messenger, who hastens 
 towards her with swift gliding movement, recall the 
 spacious halls of the ducal palace, and through the 
 open colonnade we see the distant towers of Urbino. 
 In the cartoon of the Presentation at Oxford, the 
 sudden action of the child turning in alarm\ to his 
 mother and the happy smUe on Mary's face are 
 characteristic touches of Raphael's invention ; while 
 in the Adoration; now in the Museum at Stockholm, 
 we have a varied and animated composition with a 
 crowd of riders and spectators, after Pinturicchio's 
 manner. 
 
 The last-named painter, after spending some years 
 
 27 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 in Rome, where he worked in the Sistine Chapel, 
 and adorned the Vatican halls for Alexander VI, 
 had lately returned to Perugia from Spello and 
 succeeded Perugino in the office of Prior. When, 
 in 1502, Messer Pietro returned to Florence, Raphael 
 attached himself to this new master, who was thirty- 
 years his senior, and soom became intimate with him. 
 Vasari indeed asserts that the young master of Urbino 
 supplied Pinturicchio with designs for his frescoes 
 in the Library at Siena which he was preparing at 
 this time, and accompanied him to that city in 1504, 
 to assist in their execution. There is absolutely no 
 ground for this, assertion, which Morelli calls the pure 
 invention of Sienese municipal vanity, but there is 
 no doubt that the two masters exercised a mutual 
 influence on each ojther. Pinturicchio made use of 
 some of Raphael's studies in his frescoes, and Raphael 
 borrowed several of the elder master's drawings 
 in the paintings which he executed after Perugino's 
 departure. 
 
 The first Madonnas which the master of the Gran 
 Duca and San Sisto Virgins ever painted belong 
 to this period. A small pen-and-ink sketch of the 
 Virgin holding an open book before the Child, with 
 a landscape of lake and towers in Timoteo's style, is 
 still preserved at Oxford and evidently belongs to 
 I499 or 1500. A chalk drawing of the Madonna 
 offering the Child a pomegranate, copied from a 
 sketdjh by Perugino at Berlin, is also to be seen in the 
 Albertina. But the first paintings of the subject 
 by Raphael's hand are the Reading Madonna of the 
 Solly Collection, which was copied from a cartoon by 
 Pinturicchio in the Louvre, and the Virgin between 
 St. Francis and St. Jerome, which was also borrowed 
 from a sketch by the same master in the Albertina. 
 Both of these pictures must have been executed about 
 28 
 
SAINT SEBASTIAN (BERGAMO). 
 
PERUGINO (GALL. BORGHESE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 1502 or 1503, and are now at Berlin. In both, the 
 type of Mary's face, the gold embroideries of her robe, 
 and the frizzled locks of the Child afe purely Umbrian 
 in character, and recall Pinturicchio even more than 
 Perugino. By far the most beautiful Madonna of 
 this period, however, is the tondo which Raphael 
 painted about 1503 for an uncle of his favourite com- 
 rade and fellow-student at Perugia, Domenico Alfani — 
 the Menico to whom he afterwards addressed one of 
 his rare letters from Florence. This precious little 
 painting passed from the Alfani to the Conestabile 
 Staff a family and remained at Perugia until 1870, 
 when it was sold by Count Scipione Conestabile to 
 the late Empress of Russia for three hundred and ten 
 thousand francs. Here Raphael has once more made 
 use of Perugino's design of the Virgin with the Pome- 
 granate, but has changed the fruit into a book and 
 altered the attitude of the Child, who turns oyer the 
 pages with innocent delight. When, a few years 
 ago, the picture in the Hermitage was transferred 
 from wood to canvas, the original cartoon of Raphael 
 with the pomegranate instead of the book was found 
 underneath the painting. But this Madonna with 
 the tender gaze and fair hair smoothly braided on her 
 youthful brows is holier and more divine than any of 
 Perugino's Virgins, and in the background, besides 
 the usual green slopes and slender trees, the painter 
 has introduced a still lake and distant mountains 
 white with snow. The same mystic charm marks - 
 the St. Sebastian at Bergamo, who, instead of being 
 represented as a nude figure pierced with arrows, 
 appears after the Umbrian fashion as a beautiful 
 youth richly clad in gold-embroidered draperies, 
 /holding a dart in his hand. Here we notice that 
 peculiar formation of the eyeball with no division 
 between the iris and 'the pupil which Morelli first 
 
 29 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 pointed out as a crucial test that may be applied 
 to Raphael's works of this period. This peculiarity 
 may be noted in the Coronation of the Vatican, the 
 Berlin Madonnas, and all the works which Raphael 
 produced under Perugino's influence. Among these 
 is the portrait of his master, which came to Rome 
 from Urbino with The Graces and Vision of a Knight 
 and is now in the Borghese Gallery. After long passing 
 for a Holbein, this interesting picture was recognized 
 by Miindler and other modern connoisseurs as a 
 portrait of Perugino and is described in the catalogue 
 as being the work of the artist himself. But Perugino 
 never painted a portrait so full of fire and animation, 
 so intensely real and living. The keen black eyes, 
 sharply modelled features, and flowing locks, above all 
 the penetrating insight into the man's character, 
 point to Raphael as the author of this fine portrait, 
 which he probably painted during the short visit 
 which his master paid to Perugia towards the close of 
 
 i5°3- 
 
 In the following year the young master of Urbino 
 received a new commission from the Franciscans of 
 Citta di Castello, where he had already executed 
 two important works, for a Sposalizio or Marriage of 
 the Virgin, to adorn the high altar of their convent 
 church. The beautiful painting which Raphael com- 
 pleted in 1504, and inscribed with name and date, 
 was carried off by the French in 1798, but rescued by a 
 Milanese official and ultimately placed in the Brera. 
 It was first suggested by an Italian writer in the last 
 century that in the composition of this picture 
 Raphael had evidently imitated the Sposalizio executed, 
 according to Vasari, by Perugino for a chapel in the 
 Cathedral of Perugia, and which was also carried off 
 by Napoleon and placed in the Museum at Caen. 
 This suggestion was adopted by Passavant and repeated 
 
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RAPHAEL 
 
 by all future historians until, a few years ago, Mr. 
 Berenson pronounced the Caen Sposalizio, after a 
 careful prolonged inspection, to be not the work of 
 Perugino, but of his follower Lo Spagna. This 
 artist, who was Raphael's comrade in Perugino's 
 workshop, frequently imitated his fellow-student's 
 compositions, and a copy by his hand of the Bergamo 
 St. Sebastian now belongs to an American collector 
 at Boston. No documents regarding the execution 
 of the Caen picture are known to be in existence, 
 and Vasari merely mentioned it among Perugino's 
 works in his native city. To judge from the style of 
 the painting, it was probably executed a year or two 
 after Raphael's Sposalizio and evidently imitated from 
 this famous picture, in which, Vasari expressly remarks, 
 Perugino'-s pupil for the first time excelled his master. 
 The Urbinate's work indeed, as has often been pointed 
 out, differs in many respects from his Umbrian models. 
 Now that Perugino and Pinturicchio were no longer 
 at his side, he threw off the limitations of their art 
 and went back unconsciously to the earlier style which 
 he had acquired from Timoteo Viti. Not only does 
 he revert to the old types of faces and hands, the 
 attitude and colouring of his Urbino days, but in many 
 important details he follows the traditions of the 
 Ferrarese masters rather than those of the Umbrian 
 school. The actual shape of the picture, higher 
 than it is broad, the reversal of the position of the 
 Virgin and St. Joseph and the attitude of this saint, 
 all closely resemble the Sposalizio by Costa, now in the 
 Bologna Gallery, and are quite unlike Perugino's 
 treatment of the subject in the predella executed at 
 Fano in 1497. Again, Raphael has evidently taken the 
 graceful classical temple in the background either from 
 Piero della Francesca's architectural study at Urbino, 
 or from one of his own kinsman Bramante's drawings. 
 
 3 1 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 " In this work," Vasari remarks, " Raphael has drawn 
 a temple in perspective with such evident delight that 
 it is marvellous to see the difficulties of the problem 
 which he here seeks to solve." The historian plainly- 
 regarded the , temple as an invention of Raphael's 
 own and by no means copied from Perugino's work. 
 What he has borrowed from Messer Pietro are the 
 sense of air and space, the wooded slopes of the distant 
 hills, the far horizons and clear Umbrian sky, which 
 lend the picture its atmosphere of pure and serene 
 repose. In the youthful charm and natural grace 
 of the figures we see how far he has excelled the 
 teacher at whose feet he sat. The lovely maidens 
 who wait upon the bride, the disappointed suitors 
 breaking their barren rods, are no longer isolated 
 figures standing idly by, gazing out of the picture. 
 They are stirred by the same common feeling and look 
 on with eager faces and animated gestures, intent on the 
 scene that is passing before their eyes. 
 
 This beautiful composition, so full of youthful 
 charm and deep human pathos, was the crowning 
 work of Raphael's Umbrian period. He had learnt 
 all that Perugino had to teach him and carried Umbrian 
 art to a level which it had never reached before. Now 
 other voices were calling him to new fields of work 
 and knowledge, and he might not tarry longer in 
 these pleasant and familiar ways. When he had 
 written " Raphael Urbinas MDIIII." on the cornice 
 of the Bramantesque temple in his picture, he went 
 back to his native city and spent the summer in his 
 old home. > 
 
 Many things had happened since the day when he 
 started on his first journey four years before. In the 
 spring of 1502 the sudden invasion of Caesar Borgia 
 had spread terror throughout Romagna. When all 
 was quiet and peaceful, this treacherous duke had 
 32 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 marched up the Furlo Pass and appeared before t the 
 very gates of Urbino. Duke Guidobaldo fled for his 
 life and the usurper seized his dominions and carried 
 off the priceless treasures of the ducal palace, the famous 
 library and exquisite works of art to Rome. But the 
 death of the hated Borgian Pope, Alexander VI, in 
 August 1503,' changed the whole aspect of affairs. 
 The usurper became a prisoner in his turn and the 
 exiled princes returned. The Duke and Duchess 
 were welcomed with exultant shouts by their faithful 
 subjects, and life in Urbino resumed its old aspect. 
 Once more scholars and courtiers, Castiglione and 
 Bembo, Cesare Gonzaga and the Magnifico Giuliano, 
 met in the Duchess's rooms to hold gay converse, and 
 the sound of music and song rang through the palace 
 halls. Once more the shout of " Feltre ! Feltre ! " 
 greeted the good duke as he rode up the steep mountain- 
 side and passed through the city gates, and old men 
 shed tears of joy when they saw his familiar form. 
 Raphael received a kindly welcome not only from his 
 good friends the Duke and Duchess, but from the 
 Lady Prefetessa Giovanna della Rovere, whose young 
 son Francesco was publicly recognized by his uncle 
 Guidobaldo as his heir on this occasion and received 
 the oath of allegiance from his future subjects. 
 This princess, who remembered Giovanni Santi as 
 a loyal servant of her father, heard with interest of 
 the young painter's strong desire to visit Florence, 
 where Perugino and all the foremost masters of the 
 day were then at work, and she graciously consented 
 to give him the following letter to the Gonfaloniere 
 of that city : 
 
 "To the High and Magnificent Lord and most 
 honoured Father, Pier Soderini, Gonfaloniere of 
 Florence. The bearer of this letter is Raphael, a 
 painter of Urbino, who being gifted with natural 
 
 c 33 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 talent for art, has decided to spend some time in 
 Florence to pursue his studies. And since his father 
 was a most excellent man and very dear to me, and 
 the son is a modest and gentle youth, I am sincerely- 
 attached to him, and wish him to go on to perfection. 
 I therefore commend him most warmly to your 
 Highness, and beg you for my sake to give him your 
 help and protection on every occasion, knowing that 
 I shall hold whatever service and kindness you show 
 him to be done to myself, and shall esteem this to be 
 the greatest favour on the part of your Highness, 
 to whom I now commend myself. 
 
 " Giovanna Felicia Feltria della Rovere, 
 " Duchessa di Sora, Prefetessa di Roma. 
 
 " Urbino, ist October 1504." 
 
 With this letter in his pocket, Raphael came to 
 Florence at the age of twenty-one. 
 
 34 
 
IV 
 
 RAPHAEL IN FLORENCE— THE 
 EARLY MADONNAS 
 
 i 504-1 506 
 
 ALL the great Umbrian masters whom Raphael 
 had known, either in person or by their works 
 and reputation, had gone to Florence for 
 their training. Piero della Francesca, who had been 
 his father's guest and whose noble paintings were 
 the pride of the ducal family ; Luca Signorelli, who 
 had visited Urbino a few months before Giovanni 
 Santi's death to paint two altar-pieces for the church 
 of San Spirito ; his own master Perugino, had all in 
 turn sought the banks of Arno to attain that pro- 
 ficiency in their art which could be found nowhere 
 else. Giovanni Santi himself may very likely have 
 accompanied Duke Federico on one of his visits to 
 this centre of art. It is difficult to account otherwise 
 for his intimate knowledge of the painters and sculptors 
 whom he names in his " Chronicle," or for the dis- 
 crimination with which he speaks of each individual 
 artist " in this fair Etruscan land " : 
 
 Giovan di Fiesolfrate at bene ardente. 
 Frate Filifpo e Francesco Peselli, 
 Domenico chiamato il Veneziano, 
 
 Masaccio e VAndrein, Paolo Occelli, 
 
 35 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Antonio e Pier si gran disegnatori 
 Pier del Borgo antico pifi di quelli. 
 
 Due giovin far acetate e far d , amon, 
 Leonardo da Vinci eH Perusino, 
 Pier delta Pieve, che son divin fittori. 
 
 EH Ghirlandaja, el giovin Filiffino 
 Sandro da Botticello e'l Cortonese, 
 Luca d'ingegno e sfirito fellegrino. 
 
 After talking of the Great Venetians, Giovanni 
 and Gentile Bellini, of Cosimo Tura and Melozzo, 
 his own dear friend, the poet takes up the praises of 
 the Florentine sculptors, the great Donatello, skilled 
 in stone and bronze work, " il vago Desider si dolce 
 e bello," and " Andrea di Verrocchio, that clear 
 fount of humanity and inborn gentleness, who forms 
 as it were a bridge between the arts of painting and 
 sculpture." Several of these artists, whose names 
 had been familiar to Raphael from his childhood, 
 were still living when he came to Florence in the 
 autumn of 1504. Sandro Botticelli, Perugino, and 
 Leonardo da Vinci had all been present among the 
 brilliant company of artists who met a few months 
 before to choose a site for Michelangelo's David. 
 Another painter who had been present on that memor- 
 able occasion, Filippino, had died in April of a sudden 
 attack of angina fectoris. Ghirlandajo had been 
 struck down by the plague ten years before ; Andrea 
 del Verrocchio had died in Venice while he was still 
 at work on Colleoni's equestrian statue ; the Pollaiuoli 
 brothers were gone to Rome, where they spent their 
 last years in the service of the Popes. But the works 
 which these masters had left behind them were to be 
 seen in the churches and palaces, the convents and 
 public squares of Florence. " The city and the 
 works which it contained," writes Vasari, " both 
 36 . 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 seemed to him divine, and he determined to fix his 
 abode here for some time, and made friends' with 
 several young painters by whom he was greatly 
 beloved." The wonders of Florentine art were a 
 revelation to the young stranger from Urbino. He 
 lingered in the dim chapel of the Carmine, studying 
 the old frescoes of . Masaccio, " le cose vecchie di 
 Masaccio," and stood lost in wonder before Donatello's 
 St. George on the walls of Or San Michele and his 
 marble pulpit in Santa Croce. He saw the giant 
 David which had lately been set up on the steps of 
 the Palazzo Pubblico, and watched the progress of 
 the famous cartoons which Michelangelo and Leonardo 
 were preparing for the decoration of the Great Council 
 Hall. And as he walked the streets of Florence, 
 taking note of each separate object in this new and 
 wonderful world, he realized the deficiencies of his 
 own training and the shortcomings of Umbrian art, 
 and began to understand why Michelangelo had 
 Pronounced Perugino " goffo nel arte" 
 
 In his mountain home of Urbino, the radiant 
 'hues of sky and landscape, the exquisite changes of 
 sunrise and sunset, the beauty of pure line and natural 
 grace had sunk deep' into his soul. " Raphael," 
 writes Vasari, " had been endowed by Nature with 
 the art of painting the sweetest and most gracious 
 faces — teste dolcissime e graziosissime." Later on, 
 in the busy workshop at Perugia, he had learnt how to 
 render lovely form and spiritual charm, the sense of 
 mystic calm and heavenly repose. But_he had never 
 turned_ his attention to the study of, the human 
 body or sought after that mastery of action and move- 
 ment to .which successive generations of Florentine 
 artists had attained by long and persevering efforts. 
 Now for the first time he realized this new ideal that 
 was held up before his eyes and applied himself with 
 
 37 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 characteristic patience and resolution to acquire the 
 knowledge in which he was lacking. In the words of 
 Vasari : " From having been a master he once more 
 became a scholar. He gave himself up to the study 
 of the nude, of the movement and foreshortening of 
 limbs, the connexion of nerves and muscles, with such 
 unwearied industry that in a few months he mastered 
 what others take years to learn, and became perfect 
 in all the knowledge which is required of an excellent 
 painter." The drawings by Raphael's hand which 
 may be seen in the Uffizi or Albertina, at Oxford or 
 Windsor, show how attentively in these early Floren- 
 tine days he studied the works of Donatello and 
 Pollaiuolo ; how deeply the passionate and dramatic 
 motives of the great sculptor's work interested him, 
 and how ardently he strove to imitate the consummate 
 draughtsmanship of the artist whom his father had ' 
 praised and whom Lorenzo dei Medici had called the 
 greatest master in the city. Dr. Gronau has pointed 
 out how a little group in the background of Pollaiuolo's 
 great altar-piece of St. Sebastian in the Pucci Chapel 
 of the Annunziata, which most people would hardly 
 have noticed, supplied Raphael with the motive of his 
 study of Four Riders and a Foot-soldier in the Uffizi, 
 and how his superb drawing of Hercules and the 
 Centaurs in the same gallery was evidently inspired - 
 by Antonio's wonderful little painting of Hercules. 
 From the first he was profoundly impressed by 
 Michelangelo's works. He copied the giant David 
 and the head of the roughly hewn St. Matthew which 
 had been ordered by the Operai of the Duomo, and 
 found inspiration for many of his future Madonnas in 
 the Holy Family which the great sculptor painted for 
 Angiolo Doni, and the tondi of the Mother and Child 
 which he carved for Taddeo Gaddi and Bartolommeo 
 Pitti. But he was still more powerfully attracted 
 
 38 
 
Brvgi. 
 
 ANGIOLO DONI fPITTI) 
 
*«*'• 
 
 MADDALENA DON1 (P1TTI). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 by the science and charm of ^Leonardo's art. The 
 unfinished Adoration' of iBe'Magi which^the Florentine 
 master had designed before he left Florence to go to 
 Milan, and the cartoon of the K-wgm~tmd^§.t. jlnne 
 which he had lately executed for the Servi friars" 
 and which had stirred up the enthusiasm of* the whole 
 city, filled him with wonder. " He stood speechless 
 jwith admiration," Vasari tells us, " before the grace 
 of these heads and figures, and thought him greater 
 than all other masters ; indeed Leonardo's styje_pleas£d_ 
 him,l)£tteg-4han any._l hat he'^TTad -fivii^seen, and 
 leaving Piero's manner he sought with infinite pains 
 to imitate that of Leonardo." Raphael's lovely 
 pen-and-ink drawing of Mona Lisa in the Louvre, 
 and the splendid groups of fighting horsemen at 
 Oxford and Venice, which he copied from Leonardo's 
 unfinished Battle of the Standard, prove the truth of 
 Vasari's words. His very method of drawing under- 
 went a marked alteration, and he gave up the style 
 which he had learnt in Perugino's workshop to adopt 
 the Florentine master's manner. Giovanna della 
 Rovere's letter does not seem to have brought the 
 young painter any commission from the Gonfaloniere, 
 who could hardly be expected to employ a strange 
 and untried youth when Leonardo and Michelangelo 
 were already in his service, and a host of other good 
 artists were awaiting his commands. But the recom- 
 mendations of his master Perugino and of his Urbino 
 patrons, above all his own charming and attractive 
 personality, brought him many friends, and he became 
 a general favourite with the young painters who 
 worked together in the Brancacci chapel, or spent the 
 evenings discussing problems in the architect Baccio 
 d'Agnolo's shop, a common centre of artisticisociety. 
 Chief among Raphael's friends in these days were 
 Sebastian Sangallo, a young architect and painter well 
 
 39 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 known in Florence as an ardent follower of Michel- 
 ■ angelo and nicknamed Aristotile for his wise and 
 witty sayings, and Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, the son of the 
 distinguished painter of Lorenzo dei Medici's time, 
 who belonged to the rival camp and was a great 
 admirer of Leonardo. Vasari mentions yet another 
 painter with whom Raphael formed a still closer 
 friendship — " una stretta amicizia " — the Dominican 
 artist, Fra Bartolommeo, who had lately taken up his 
 brush again and gladly shared all that he knew with 
 this youth who was so eager to learn the secrets of 
 modelling and colouring. 
 
 One of the first commissions which Raphael received 
 in Florence was from Angiolo Doni, the wealthy 
 merchant who haggled with Michelangelo over the 
 priqe of his Holy Family and always contrived to get 
 good work as cheaply as possible. At his request 
 the young master painted the portraits of Doni and 
 his wife, Maddalena Strozzi, which are now in the 
 Pitti Gallery. Both are living types of Florentine 
 patricians : the prosperous merchant in black suit 
 and red sleeves, with his keen eye and anxious look ; 
 his wife, with her dull, placid face and rich brocades, 
 and the jewels on her neck and hands. And both are 
 painted with a care and precision worthy of Ghir- 
 landajo, with whose portraits Raphael was no doubt 
 by this time familiar. At the same time another 
 model was in his mind, as we see from the pen-and-ink 
 sketch in the Louvre, which was plainly suggested by 
 Leonardo's portrait of Mona Lisa. The folded hands 
 and wavy hair, the very shape and cut of the bodice, 
 are all copied from this immortal work, only instead 
 of Leonardo's landscape of rocks, the young Urbinate 
 has introduced a glimpse of tower and hills seen 
 between the columns of an open loggia. 
 
 Since no large altar-pieces or other important tasks 
 
 4°- 
 
y permission of Messrs. Braun, dement. 
 
 STUDY FOR MADDALENA DON! (LOUVRE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 seemed likely to fall to his share, Raphael painted 
 a series of small panels for private owners during the 
 first year which he spent in Florence. The earliest 
 and most beautiful of these was the Madonna del 
 Gran Duca, which the Grand Duke Ferdinand III 
 bought in 1799 from a poor Tuscan widow in whose 
 house it was discovered, and which he took with him 
 wherever he went. The germ of this composition 
 is to be found in a silver-point drawing in the Malcolm 
 Collection, which was probably executed by Timoteo 
 Viti, but which is still ascribed to Raphael by some 
 critics, while the pen-and-ink sketch of the group by 
 his own hand may be seen in the Uffizi. The great 
 charm of the picture lies in the simplicity of the design 
 and in the perfect rhythm of the composition, in the 
 deep content of the Child and the serene purity of 
 the Virgin's face. Closely connected with this group 
 are the much injured Casa Tern-pi Madonna at Munich 
 with the Mother clasping her Child in a tender 
 embrace ; and the little Madonna at Panshanger, 
 which remained at Urbino until the close of the 
 eighteenth century, when it was bought by Lord 
 Cowper, who was then minister at Florence. This 
 youthful Virgin, with the smile on her lips and the 
 Child clinging to her neck, is seen resting on a grassy 
 slope, and in the background we recognize a landscape 
 dear to every Florentine, the hill of San Miniato 
 with the dome and campanile of Cronaca's newly 
 built church, that " bella villanella " which Michel- 
 angelo loved. The original sketch of this little picture, 
 which Morelli called the loveliest of all Raphael's 
 Madonnas, is still preserved in the Uffizi. The same 
 strong and joyous Child, the same gentle Mother 
 meet us in the Orleans Madonna, which once belonged 
 to the brother of Louis XIV, and after many journey- 
 ings is now once more at Chantilly. But here the 
 
 4 1 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Virgin is seated in her cottage home, and the red curtain 
 and flask and jars on the shelf are quite in Ghirlandajo's 
 style, and his Mother's profile recalls Michelangelo's 
 sculptured tondi, while the animated movement of 
 the Child seems to point to a somewhat later period. 
 Two little pictures of the Madonna with Christ in 
 her arms, on wood, by Raphael, are mentioned in a 
 seventeenth-century inventory of the Urbino gallery, 
 and the Panshanger Virgin was found by Lord Cowper 
 in a house at Urbino, so that either of these may have 
 been painted for Guidobaldo or his sister the Prefetessa, 
 for whom Raphael executed a work about this time. 
 But whether they were destined for his old friends at 
 Urbino, or for his new patrons, /these Madonnas reveal 
 the profit which Raphael had,jJready-Teapsd from his 
 Florentkre^studies. His newly acquired knowledge 
 
 ^TtecThls 
 
 of structural "design and modelling" "had enabled his 
 own personality to find fuller and freer expression, and 
 to realize a vision. of ideal-beauty and human tenderness 
 to which few other masters ever attained. 
 
 The second group of Madonnas which Raphael 
 painted at this period were all executed for Umbrian 
 patrons. While in Florence he was still comparatively 
 unknown, in Perugia his reputation stood high, and 
 when the nuns of Monte Luce, a convent of Poor 
 Clares, consulted the magistrates as to the choice of 
 an artist to paint an Assumption for their high altar, 
 they were advised to employ " Maestro Raphaello da 
 Urbino, the best painter of the day." But although 
 Raphael signed a contract agreeing to paint this 
 altar-piece in December 1505, and received thirty 
 gold crowns in advance, he never did more than 
 prepare a preliminary sketch, and after waiting 
 patiently for twelve years the poor nuns consented to 
 allow two of the great master's pupils to execute 
 their picture. The nuns of St. Anthony of Padua 
 42 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 in Perugia were more fortunate. For them Raphael 
 painted the fine altar-piece known as the Madonna di 
 San? Antonio, acquired by the late Mr. Pierpont 
 Morgan. Both this picture and the Madonna and 
 Saints which the master painted for the Chapel of 
 the Ansidei in the Church of San Fiorenzo were 
 probably begun during the visit which Raphael 
 paid to Perugia at the close of 1505, and completed 
 with the help of assistants in 1507 or 1508. The 
 Ansidei Madonna, as is well known, came to Blenheim 
 in the eighteenth century, and was bought for the 
 National Gallery twenty years ago. The two pic- 
 tures were easily compared together when they 
 hung side by side in Trafalgar Square. In both 
 compositions the Virgin is enthroned under a lofty 
 canopy after the usual Umbrian fashion, and the 
 same gold-embroidered mantle falls in broad folds 
 to her feet. But in the details of their execution, 
 the simple grace of the Virgin and innocent charm of 
 the children, in the venerable form of St. Nicholas 
 of Bari in the one picture, and in the imposing but 
 hardly successful figures of St. Peter and St. Paul 
 in the other, we see the influence of Raphael's Floren- 
 tine studies, and the wish to emulate Leonardo and 
 Fra Bartolommeo. The scattered fragments of the 
 predellas belonging to these altar-pieces were probably 
 chiefly the work of assistants and have all suffered 
 much from restoration, but the Christ on the Mount 
 of Olives retains some trace of the master's hand 
 in the green hills and feathery trees of the land- 
 scape. 
 
 It is curious to see how in these pictures painted 
 for Umbrian churches Raphael returns to Umbrian 
 motives. The original pen-and-ink sketch for the 
 Ansidei Virgin is taken from a drawing by Pinturicchio 
 for a picture at Spello, and a cartoon by Perugino 
 
 43 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 at Berlin supplied him with the subject of another 
 Madonna which he executed soon after this. This 
 is the circular panel known as the Terranuova Madonna, 
 from the ducal family to which it belonged, until it 
 was bought by King Frederick. William IV of Prussia, 
 Here the Child showing St. John a scroll bearing the 
 words " Agnus Dei " is copied from Perugino's 
 drawing, but the design and landscape strongly 
 recall Florentine models. This is still more the 
 case with the fresco of the Trinity in the Carmelite 
 convent of San Severo, which bears the date of 1505, 
 and must have been painted before Raphael left 
 Perugia in the following spring. Unfortunately this 
 fresco has been irreparably ruined, and the grandeur 
 of the conception is all that remains to us of Raphael's 
 work. The figure of Christ throned upon the clouds 
 between two rows of majestic saints seated in a semi- 
 circle on either side is borrowed from the unfinished 
 Last Judgment which Fra Bartolommeo painted in 
 the hospital of St. Maria Nuova after Savonarola's 
 death, and shows how profoundly he had been im- 
 pressed by the friar's conception. Raphael, however, 
 only finished the upper part of his fresco, and after 
 his death the Carmelite fathers employed Perugino to 
 complete the work of the gifted scholar whom it was 
 his lot to survive. 
 
 According to an old and well-authenticated tradition 
 recorded by Vasari and Passavant, Raphael paid a visit 
 to Urbino before his return to Florence in the autumn 
 of 1506. Here Vasari tells us he painted several 
 pictures for Duke Guidobaldo, amongst others two 
 small Madonnas of great beauty, in his second or 
 Florentine style, and a Christ on the Mount of Olives, 
 which was remarkable for its miniature-like finish. 
 But the only pictures now in existence which we know 
 to have been executed for the Duke of Urbino are two 
 
 44 
 
Emery Walker. 
 
 STUDY OF MADONNA BY TIMOTEO VITI (BRITISH MUSEUM). 
 
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 MADONNA DORLEANS (CHANTILLY). 
 
SAINT GEORGE (LOUVRE) 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 versions of St. George and the Dragon. In June 1504 
 Guidobaldo received the insignia of the Garter from 
 King Henry VII, and wore the blue mantle and riband 
 of the Order on the following St. George's Feast at 
 Urbino. The Garter figures repeatedly among the 
 devices carved on the friezes of the ducal palace, and 
 Giovanni Santi translated its famous motto into 
 quaint Italian verse, so it was not to be wondered that 
 his son was desired to paint a picture of the patron 
 .Saint of England. The first version of the subject 
 is the little St. George of the Louvre, which must 
 originally have been intended as a companion to the 
 St. Michael painted by Raphael in his boyhood at 
 Urbino. A pen-and-ink drawing of this picture, in 
 the painter's Peruginesque style, is now in the Uffizi, 
 and from the likeness of the rearing horse to one of 
 Pollaiuolo's work is ascribed bv Dr. Gronau to 
 Raphael's first year in Florence. But whether this 
 first St. George belongs to the year 1505 or to an earlier 
 date, the second picture is clearly connected with the 
 mission sent to England by the Duke on this occasion. 
 Castiglione was selected for this embassy, and set out 
 in September 1506, taking with him many costly 
 gifts, among which were three horses of the quiet 
 Mantuan breed and a picture of St. George by Raphael. 
 After the sale of the Whitehall pictures by the Par- 
 liament, after King Charles I's execution, this picture 
 returned to Italy, and was eventually bought by the 
 Empress Catherine II of Russia. The fine drawing 
 of this St. George in the Uffizi shows a marked advance 
 on the former version, and is an evident replica of 
 Donatello's bas-relief at Or San Michele. The position 
 of horse and rider is reversed, and the impetuous 
 action of the warrior charging full tilt at the dragon 
 under his feet is full of fire and animation. The 
 warrior Saint wears the Garter with the word Honi 
 
 45 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 on his knee, and the name " Raphaello U." is written 
 on the blue and gold trappings of his charger. 
 
 The portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Castiglione 
 which Raphael painted, and the chalk drawing of 
 Bembo which Michieli saw in the Cardinal's house 
 at Padua, have all vanished, and the only portraits 
 of this period which are still in existence are one of 
 Raphael himself in the Uffizi and another of an 
 unknown youth in the gallery of Budapest. This last 
 has been entirely repainted, but is evidently by the 
 master's hand, and probably represents one of his 
 fellow-students at Urbino or Perugia, perhaps his 
 beloved Menico or tfie goldsmith Cesarino di Rosetti. 
 The portrait of Raphael himself came to Rome from 
 Urbino in 1588, and is too well known to need de- 
 scription. The beautiful and refined face with the 
 large brown eyes and wistful expression all agree with 
 contemporary descriptions of the wonderful youth 
 who was la gentilezza stessa, the best painter in the 
 land, as everyone in Umbria knows, and yet, in Duchess 
 Giovanna's words, always modest and charming, 
 jealous of none, kindly and gracious to all, ever ready 
 to leave his own work to help another, lending his* 
 cartoons freely to less gifted comrades, and encouraging 
 young artists with his praise, a favourite alike with 
 the brilliant courtiers and ladies of Urbino, and with 
 the many students who met in Baccio d'Agnolo's 
 shop in Florence. 
 
 46 
 
PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH (BUDA PESTH). 
 
V 
 
 RAPHAEL IN FLORENCE— THE 
 MADONNAS, AND ENTOMBMENT 
 
 i 506-1 508 
 
 IF Raphael was still at Urbino in September 
 1506, he must have seen Pope Julius II when 
 he visited the ducal court on his way to the 
 conquest of Bologna, and witnessed the festivities in 
 honour of this warlike Pontiff. But before long he 
 was back in Florence, where, in VasarPs words, " he 
 once more devoted himself with incredible ardour to 
 the study of art." Much had happened during his 
 absence, and he found many changes in artistic 
 circles. Michelangelo had been summoned to Rome, 
 to execute a sumptuous monument for Pope Julius II ; 
 and Leonardo had given up his work in disgust, after 
 painting one group of his great design in colour on 
 the palace wall, and had gone to serve the French 
 king at Milan. The absence of these two masters 
 probably had the effect of leading Raphael to rely 
 more on the help and example of his friend Fra 
 Bartolommeo, who, now that Michelangelo and 
 Leonardo were gone, was the foremost artist in Florence. 
 The influence of the Dominican painter is certainly 
 strongly marked in the group of Madonnas which he 
 executed that autumn. Chief among the friends 
 whom he had made in Florence was the cultivated 
 
 47 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 merchant Taddeo Taddei, who lived in a house of 
 the Via dei Ginori, built by Baccio d'Agnolo, and 
 gave Michelangelo one of his first commissions' for a 
 carved bas-relief. Whether he heard of Raphael 
 from his friend Pietro Bembo, or met him first at 
 Baccio d'Agnolo's house, Taddeo soon became deeply 
 attached to the young painter of Urbino, wh6 was a 
 constant guest in his house and at his table, and who 
 wrote home to his uncle Simone that he owed : ore 
 to this Florentine citizen than to any other man living. 
 " And in order not to be outdone in courtesy," writes 
 Vasari, " Raphael, who was the most charming, of 
 men, painted two pictures for him, which are still to be 
 seen in the house of the said Taddeo's heirs." One 
 of these, the Madonna del Prato, was sold by Taddeo's. 
 descendants to the art-loving Archduke Ferdinand 
 of Austria, after whose death i% passed into the col- 
 lection of, the Imperial House at Vienna. The same 
 group of three figures, the Virgin with the Child 
 Christ and St. John, is repeated in a different form in 
 the Madonna del Cardellino, which Raphael painted 
 before the end of 1506 as a wedding present for another 
 of his Florentine friends, Lorenzo Nasi, who after- 
 wards held the office of Prior. Here the Virgin holds 
 an open book in her hand, and the Baptist, instead of 
 offering Christ a cross of reeds, places a goldfinch 
 in his hand. This picture, which the owner held in 
 the " greatest veneration," Vasari writes, " both on 
 account of its rare excellence and for the sake of 
 Raphael, whom he counted as his dearest friend," was 
 shattered to pieces by an earthquake in 1548. But 
 Lorenzo's son Battista succeeded in having the pre- 
 cious panel repaired, and his picture is still one of the 
 chief ornaments of the Uffizi. The third Madonna 
 in which this favourite grouping is seen, La Belle 
 Jardiniere of the Louvre, was painted early in 1507 
 48 
 
RAPHAEL (UFF1ZI). 
 
MADONNA DEL CARDELLINO (UFFIZtt. 
 
LA BELLE JARDINIERE (LOUVRE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 for a Sienese gentleman, Filippo Sergardi, who sold 
 it to King Francis I. In this picture, St. John, 
 holding the cross in his hand, kneels reverently at the 
 feet of the Child, whose face is i turned in earnest 
 questioning to his Mother, one of the fairest and 
 gentlest of all Raphael's Virgins. 
 
 The triangular scheme, of these three paintings 
 was probably suggested by Leonardo's cartoons .for 
 the Virgin of the Rocks and St. Anne. _an idea which 
 was still further developed by Fra. Sartolommeo in 
 more than one subject. Raphael' here adapts the 
 designs with admirable felicity to his composition, 
 and rings the changes on the theme with his usual 
 skill and wealth of fancy. The innocent charm of the 
 children, their free and natural movement, show the 
 perfection which he had acquired by long and careful 
 study ; and the flowers and grasses of the foreground 
 are painted with loving truth and observation. The 
 landscape is singularly rich and varied, and in the 
 _Madonna\dei Cardellino we have a picturesque view 
 of Val d'Arno, an arched bridge spanning a mountain 
 torrent on the one side, and on the other a distant 
 prospect of the Duomo and Campanile of Florence. 
 A drawing for this Madonna may be seen at Oxford, 
 and countless sheets covered with sketches of mothers 
 and children in every attitude are preserved in the 
 Albertina and the Louvre. The Uffizi contains another 
 lovely cartoon of a youthful Virgin with the Child and 
 St. John, which forms the subject of a little painting 
 in the Esterhazy Gallery at Budapest that was left 
 unfinished by Raphael, and completed by inferior 
 hands. 
 
 The little Madonna dell' Agnello at Madrid, bearing 
 the date 1507, is another picture of singular charm. 
 The motive of the Child riding on the back of a lamb 
 is ' directly derived from the cartoon executed by 
 
 d 49 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Leonardo for the Servi, but instead of. St. Anne, a 
 /enerable figure of St. Joseph is introduced, resting 
 on his stick and looking down at the infant Christ. 
 This figure connects the Prado picture with the larger 
 Holy Family at Munich, originally executed for the 
 family of Lorenzo Nasi's bride, Sandra Canigia^i. 
 Here not only St. Joseph but St. Elizabeth and 
 St. John are introduced, and the painter has once 
 more adopted Fra Bartolommeo's favourite pyramidal 
 scheme. Unfori^ lately the picture has suffered so 
 much from injudicious restoration that little beyond 
 the design is left of Raphael's work, although, as in 
 the Madrid Virgin, the words " Raphael Urbinas " 
 are inscribed on the hem of the Virgin's bodice. 
 In the other Madonnas which were painted during 
 Raphael's last year in Florence, such as the Nicoliti^ 
 Virgin at Panshanger and the Colonna panel at Berli 
 the hand of assistants is clearly seen, while the alta 
 piece of the Madonna del Baldacchino, in the Pitt _ 
 was ordered by the Dei family for their chapel in San 
 Spirito and left unfinished in Raphael's studio at the 
 time of his death. The saints pn either side of the 
 Virgin's throne in this composition bear a strong 
 likeness to Fra Bartolommeo's figures, and the same 
 resemblance may be traced in the St. Catherine of 
 the National Gallery, which must have been painted 
 about the same time. It is also interesting to note 
 that at this period most of Raphael's studies are exe- 
 cuted in black chalk, a practice which he seems to have 
 borrowed from his Dominican friend. 
 
 The facility of his invention and the amiability of 
 his nature led many of his old fellow-students to 
 seek his help when they needed designs for new 
 pictures. This probably accounts for the existence ■ 
 of many Holy Families in which we recognize Raphael's 
 skilful composition and tender feeling, but fail to 
 5° 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 see any trace of his hand. Such, for instance, is the 
 Vierge au Palmier at' Bridgewater House, formerly 
 in the Orleans Gallery, and Virgin with the beardless 
 St. Joseph at St. Petersburg, in both of which the 
 drawing is too weak and the quality too inferior to 
 be the master's own work. The Museum at Lille 
 contains a cartoon of a Holy Family, carefully drawn 
 and shaded, which he sent from Florence to his old 
 friend Domenico Alfani, with the following note on 
 the back of the paper : "Do not forget, Menico, to 
 send me the songs (' Strambotti ') of Ricciardo, about 
 the storm which overtook him on his journey. Remind 
 Cesarino " (the clever goldsmith Cesare di Rosetti) 
 "to send me the sermon I want, and commend me to 
 him. And remember to ask Madonna Atalanta to 
 send me the promised money and see that it is in gold, 
 ind tell Cesarino also to remind her to do this. And if 
 I can do anything more for you, let me know." This 
 last request evidently refers to the commission wh L*> 
 he had received at Perugia in 1506 from Atalanta 
 Baglioni for an altar-piece of the Entombment to 
 lidorn a chapel in the cathedral which she had en- 
 dowed in memory of her murdered son Grifone. 
 
 After his return to Florence, most of his time 
 and thought were devoted to the composition of this 
 work, that was in some respects the most important 
 which he had yet executed. Raphael's distrust of 
 his own powers and his anxiety to produce a painting 
 worthy of the occasion are seen in the innumerable 
 studies of the subject which are still to be found in 
 the different galleries of Europe. First of all he took 
 his master Perugino's touching Pietd in the convent of 
 Santa Chiara at Florence for his model, as we see from 
 the series of studies at Oxford a.nd Paris, in which the 
 dead Christ is represented , lying in his Mother's arms, 
 surrounded by sorrowing disciples. Separajte studies 
 
 Si 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 of the mourning women and of the Magdalen kneeling 
 at the feet of St. John and fixing her sad eyes on her 
 master's lifeless form, very noble and pathetic in their 
 reserve, are in the Albertina and in other private 
 collections. Then a sudden change came over the 
 painter's thoughts, and abandoning his first intention, 
 he adopted the scheme of Mantegna's famous engraving, 
 and represented the body of Christ borne up the steps 
 to the tomb hewn in the rock, while the Magdalen 
 bends tenderly over her dead Lord and supports 
 his arm. A series of seven studies illustrates the 
 progress of the painter's thoughts in this direction. 
 A drawing of the central group is in the Uffizi, while in 
 the British Museum we have a separate study of one 
 of the Marys kneeling on the ground and turning round 
 to support the fainting Mother — a figure evidently 
 copied from Michelangelo's Virgin in the Doni 
 tondo. 
 
 ^F inally, Raphael adopted Mantegna's design in 
 the main, altering some types and modifying others, 
 to suit his gentle soul. He left out the solitary 
 St. John standing apart with clasped hands in the 
 agony of his despair, and placed the beloved discipk 
 among the bearers and the Magdalen bending over 
 her Lord. And he introduced the fainting Virgin 
 on the right, connecting the two groups by the 
 action of one of the women, who looks round while 
 in the act of supporting Mary in her arms. 
 
 Unfortunately the combination of these separate 
 motives did not produce a harmonious effect, and the 
 result of all these laborious efforts, it must be confessed, 
 leaves us cold. The correctness of the drawing, the 
 variety of attitude and expression, the skill with which 
 the figures are grouped are all undeniable. Raphael's 
 Entombment, we feel, is a triumph of academic art, 
 but it lacks the spontaneous charm, the natural 
 
 52 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 grace and beauty of his earlier work. His Florentine 
 contemporaries, however, accustomed as they were 
 to set store on clever draughtsmanship and skilful 
 composition, hailed it with a burst of applause, and 
 Vasari grew ecstatic in his praise of this " divinest of 
 pictures, in which the highest diligence, love, art, 
 and grace are combined, and which fills all who see 
 it with wonder at its extraordinary perfection." The 
 people of Perugia raised an indignant protest when 
 this altar-piece, which they counted as the greatest 
 treasure of their city, was presented to Cardinal 
 Scipio Borghese, afterwards Pope Paul V, by the 
 Franciscan friars, and secretly conveyed by night to 
 Rome. The predella of the Entombment, now in the 
 Vatican Gallery, consists of three tondi in chiaroscuro, 
 representing the three Christian Graces, each attended 
 by two winged boys. Faith bears the chalice of the 
 Host aloft, Hope is a figure with clasped hands and 
 upturned eyes, and Charity folds three, children 
 in her embrace, while two others cling to her side. A 
 fine sketch of this last-named subject is to be seen in the 
 Albertina on the back of a study for the Entombment. 
 Here, again, Michelangelo's influence predominates, but 
 Raphael, we feel, is more at home in these Madonna- 
 like forms which have all the repose and beauty 
 that are lacking in his larger and more laboured 
 compositions. 
 
 While he was still at work on Atalanta Baglioni's 
 altar-piece at Perugia, in October 1507, the painter 
 was summoned to appear before a tribunal at Urbino. 
 He had lately bought a house from the Cervasi family 
 for one hundred crowns, and was now required to pay 
 the money to the Duke's treasurer, on behalf of his 
 creditors, who were unable to meet their liabilities 
 towards the State. On this occasion Raphael renewed 
 his intercourse with the ducal family, and especially 
 
 53 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 with Giovanna della Rovere and her son the young 
 Francesco, who was soon to succeed his uncle. Guido- 
 baldo was already suffering from the wasting disease 
 which soon ended his life, and on the nth qf April 
 he died, at Fossombrone in the valley of the Metauro, 
 where he had been removed in a litter to escape the 
 cold of the mountain regions of Urbino. The news 
 of this sad event was promptly sent to his nephew in 
 Florence by Simone Ciarla, and on the 21st of April 
 Raphael replied in the following letter : 
 
 " To my dearest uncle, Simone de Batista 
 de Ciarla da Urbino. 
 
 " Dear to me as a father, I have received your 
 letter telling me of the death of our most illustrious 
 Lord Duke. May God have mercy upon his soul ! 
 Indeed I could not read your letter without tears. 
 But he is gone and there is no more to be said ; we 
 must have patience and bow to the will of God. I 
 wrote the other day to my uncle the priest [Bartolom- 
 meo Santi], asking him to send me the little table on 
 which the picture of the Lady Prefetessa is painted, 
 but he has not yet sent it. I beg you therefore to let 
 him know if anyone is coming here, that I may- 
 satisfy Madonna's wish, for I may shortly need her 
 help. I also beg you, my dearest uncle, to tell the 
 priest and Santa [his aunt] that if Taddeo Taddei, 
 the Florentine, of whom we have often spoken, should 
 come to Urbino, they must spare no pains to do him 
 honour, and I pray you also, for love of me, to show 
 him all possible attention, for indeed I owe him more 
 than any man living. As for the picture you name, 
 I have not yet fixed the price, and would not, even if 
 I could, do so, as it will be better for me to have it 
 valued. So I could not write to you what I did not 
 know myself and even now cannot say for certain. 
 
 54 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 All I can tell you is that the patron who has ordered 
 this picture says that he will give me orders for three 
 hundred gold crowns' worth of pictures, here and in 
 France. When the feast-days are over, perhaps I 
 shall be able to tell you how high the picture is valued, 
 as I have already finished the cartoon, and after Easter 
 we shall attack the picture. I should, if possible, very 
 much like to obtain a letter of recommendation from 
 the Lord Prefect for the Gonfaloniere of Florence. 
 A few days ago I wrote to my uncle and to Giacomo 
 da Roma begging them to procure this for me, as it 
 would be very useful to me, on account of some work 
 in a room which his Highness can give to whom he 
 pleases. I beg of you to ask this, for I believe that 
 if the Lord Prefect hears it is for me, he will consent, 
 and I commend myself many times to him as his old 
 servant and friend. Commend me also to Maestro 
 . . . and to Ridolfo [his cousin], and all the others. 
 
 " Your. Raehael,- - — — - 
 
 - Painter in Florence." 
 
 When this letter reached Urbino, the young Duke 
 was fully occupied in paying funeral honours . to his 
 uncle and securing the recognition of his own title 
 by his new subjects. But Simone no doubt laid 
 Raphael's petition before him at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity, and Francesco probably thought it easier 
 to recommend the painter to his uncle, Pope Julius II, 
 than to apply to the Gonfaloniere on his behalf. A 
 few weeks later the young Duke paid a visit to Rome, 
 where his suggestion met with powerful support 
 from Bramante of Casteldurante, the Urbino architect 
 who was rebuilding the basilica of St. Peter's, and 
 who, according to Vasari, strongly recommended his 
 young kinsman to the Pope's notice. But whether 
 Raphael's name was first brought before his Holiness 
 
 55 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 by these influential friends, or whether Julius II 
 remembered the young painter whom he had seen at 
 Urbino, we know that a summons to Rome reached 
 him within the next few weeks. 
 
 The call came at a critical moment in the young 
 master's career. He had learnt all that Florence 
 could teach him, and the separate currents of Fer- 
 rarese, of Umbrian, and of Tuscan painting were 
 blended together in his art. In scientific knowledge 
 and technical completeness, in the lifelike repre- 
 sentation of human movement and emotion, he had 
 already surpassed his first teachers and stood on a 
 level with the foremost masters of the day. For a 
 moment, indeed, at the close of this Florentine 
 period, it seemed as if — like Sandro Botticelli in Pol- 
 laiuolo's workshop — he was in danger of losing his own 
 individuality in the earnestness of his endeavour 
 after a wider knowledge and higher excellence. From 
 that peril he was saved' by this call to another sphere, 
 where he had to put forth his own creative powers 
 on a new and grander scale. Gladly he obeyed the 
 summons, and went to Rome at the bidding of the 
 great Pontiff, who had already secured the services 
 of Bramante and Michelangelo, and now sent for 
 Raphael to paint the halls of the Vatican. 
 
 56 
 
VI 
 
 RAPHAEL IN ROME— THE VATICAN 
 
 STANZE 
 
 1508-1514 
 
 RAPHAEL came to Rome in the summer of 
 1508. The date is shown by a passage of 
 - the Report of Ancient Monuments which 
 he drew up for Pope Leo X in the early spring of 
 1520, in which he says that he has not yet spent twelve 
 years in the Eternal City. It is further confirmed 
 by a letter which he wrote from Rome in September 
 1508 to his former master Timoteo Viti's old friend 
 and teacher, Francesco Francia, at Bologna. This 
 letter was discovered by Malvasia among the Lam- 
 bertini papers, in that city towards the close of the 
 seventeenth century, and, < although published by this 
 historian in a modernized form, is probably genuine. 
 We learn from Vasari that Raphael exchanged letters 
 and portraits with Francia, who painted several 
 pictures for Guidobaldo I, and may have visited 
 Urbino himself, while the papal Datary, Baldassare 
 Turini, to whom he refers in this letter, had lately 
 accompanied the Pope to Bologna. The sorrows 
 to which Raphael alludes with so much sympathy, 
 the expulsion of Francia 's patron Giovanni Benti- 
 vdglio, and the destruction of the palace which he had 
 adorned with frescoes, were still fresh in the Bolognese 
 
 57 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 artist's mind, and the Judith here mentioned was one 
 of the works which had perished in the flames. 
 
 " Dear Messer Francesco, — I have just received 
 your portrait, which Bazzotto brought me in good 
 condition, without any damage, and for which I 
 thank you exceedingly. It is very/ fine, and so lifelike 
 that at times it deceives me and I seem to be with you 
 and hear your words. I beg you to have compassion 
 -and forgive my delay in sending you my own. Grave 
 and incessant labours have prevented me from drawing 
 this with my own hand, according to cur agreement, 
 and I felt it would not be seemly to let one of my 
 assistants draw it and only touch it up myself, although 
 I might have done this, since I cannot hope to equal 
 your work. Forgive me, I pray, since you have 
 formerly known what it was to be deprived of liberty 
 and depend on masters who afterwards . . . Mean- 
 while, by the hand of this bearer, who is returning 
 in six days' time, I send you another drawing, one of 
 the Nativity (Presepio), which, as you will see, differs 
 considerably from the work of which you were kind 
 enough to speak as warmly as you have always done 
 of my other things, so much so that I felt myself 
 blushing, as I do now in offering you this trifle, which 
 you must accept more in token of my obedience and 
 love than for any other reason. If in exchange I 
 may receive a drawing of your Judith, I shall place it 
 among my dearest and most precious treasures. 
 Monsignore il Datario is anxiously expecting his 
 little Madonna, and Cardinal Riario his large one, 
 as you will hear more fully from Bazzotto. And I 
 shall look at them with the same delight and satis- 
 faction which I feel in contemplating all your Virgins, 
 never having seen any by other hands that are more 
 beautiful and devout or better painted. Be of good 
 58 
 
SAVONAROLA (VATICAN STANZE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 courage, act with your usual prudence, and believe 
 that I feel your sorrows as if they were my own. 
 Continue to love me as I love you, with all my heart ! 
 From Rome, the 5th day of September, 1508." 
 
 In this letter Raphael speaks of himself as being 
 in the service of a patron, who keeps him continually 
 employed in important labours. This patron was 
 Pope Julius II, who, in November 1507, had left the 
 Borgia Apartments, where he had spent the first years 
 of his reign, declaring that he would not be plagued 
 any longer with recollections of Alexander VI, and 
 had taken up his residence in the rooms built by Pope 
 Nicholas V on the upper story, looking out on the 
 Belvedere Court. One small room which was used by 
 Pope Nicholas as his study, and is now known as the 
 chapel of Pope Nicholas, had been already decorated 
 with frescoes by Fra Angelico. Now Julius II, anxious 
 to see his living-rooms adorned in a similar manner, 
 summoned the best masters whom he could obtain 
 from all parts of Italy, to paint these halls on a scale 
 corresponding with the grandeur of his ideas. The 
 Umbrians, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Luca Signorelli ; 
 the Lombards, Sodoma, Bramante ; the Sienese, 
 Baldassare, Peruzzi, and the Venetian, Lorenzo Lotto, 
 were all engaged on different parts of the palace 
 in the course of that autumn and winter. While 
 Perugino was painting the ceiling of the Stanza dell' 
 Incendio, and Peruzzi was employed in the Stanza 
 d'Eliodoro, Giovanni Bazzi, surnamed Sodoma, the 
 most gifted of Leonardo's pupils, became Raphael's 
 assistant in the decoration of the Camera della 
 Segnatura. 
 
 This hall, which became known by the name of the 
 Camera della Segnatura because it was there that 
 official documents received the papal seal, was origi- 
 
 59 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 nally, as Dr. Wickhoff has shown, intended to hold 
 the Pope's private library. It was, there can be little 
 doubt, the library in the upper story of the papal 
 palace which Albertini describes as richly decorated 
 by Julius II, and to which Bembo refers in a letter of 
 15 13 as sumptuously adorned with paintings and 
 marble friezes, and containing more valuable books 
 than the larger Vatican library on the ground floor. 
 This accounts for the number and variety of volumes 
 which are represented both in the allegorical and 
 historical subjects of Raphael's frescoes in the hands of 
 the philosophers and fathers, of the scholars and poets 
 on the walls, of the angels and genii on- the ceiling, 
 of Justinian and Pope Gregory. And it also explains 
 the scheme of decoration which Raphael adopted on 
 this occasion. The four figures of Theology, Philo- 
 sophy, Law, and Poetry, which he painted in four 
 large medallions on the ceiling of the room, correspond 
 with the divisions in the plan drawn up by Pope 
 Nicholas V, before his accession to the papal throne, 
 for the arrangement of the library of San Marco in 
 Florence. ■ That plan had been adopted by Duke 
 Federico in his famous library at Urbino, and Giovanni 
 Santi describes the figures of theologians, philosophers, 
 lawyers, and poets which were pictured on the walls 
 of this spacious hall. These four branches of human_ 
 learning were now represented by the painter of TXf Hino 
 on the ceiling of the Pope's library, in the form of 
 fair women throned on the clouds and attended by 
 winged genii bearing appropriate mottoes on their 
 tablets. Theology is robed in the three colours of 
 the Christian grace, red, white, and green, and wears 
 a wreath of oak leaves, the badge of the Pope's family ; 
 Philosophy is a classical figure clad in antique costume 
 and seated in a marble chair ; Jurisprudence carries 
 the sword and scales ; and Poetry, the noblest of all, 
 60 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 crowned with laurel and robed in blue, holds a book 
 and lyre in her hands, and lifts her inspired face to 
 Heaven, while a line from Virgil, " Numine afflatur" 
 is inscribed on the tablets of the laughing children at 
 her feeti In form and modelling these majestic 
 figures strongly resemble the later Madonnas of 
 Raphael's Florentine period, while in some respects 
 they "recall Perugino's frescoes in the Cambio at 
 Perugia. But at the same time we are conscious of 
 a new influence, and realize the sense of grandeur 
 and repose which was the result of Raphael's first 
 sight of the Eternal City and of all the wonders of 
 classical art. In the presence of this marvellous 
 world the master's natural feeling for beauty, dimmed 
 and obscured for a time by his passionate devotion 
 to scientific studies in Florence, revived again and 
 blossomed out into new and countless forms. 
 
 The Pope, Vasari tells us, was delighted with these 
 allegorical figures, and bade his new favourite paint the 
 rest of the room without delay. At the same time, 
 with characteristic impetuosity, he dismissed the other 
 artists in his service, and ordered the paintings which 
 they had already executed to be destroyed. This 
 last statement, often as it has been repeated, was 
 clearly an invention of Vasari, and the delicate little 
 classical subjects which Sodoma painted on the same 
 ground of shimmering gold as Raphael's allegories, 
 as well as Perugino's and Peruzzi's similar decorations 
 in the neighbouring rooms, remain in existence to 
 this day. But when this part of their work was done, 
 the several artists went their way. However arbitrary 
 their dismissal may have seemed at the time, pos- 
 terity, it must be owned, has justified the Pope's 
 decision. Raphael was henceforth the Pontiff's chosen 
 painter, and applied himself with ardour to the great 
 task before him. He took counsel with Castiglione 
 
 •61 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 and Bembo and with the other humanists whom he 
 had known at Urbino and whom he often met in Rome, 
 and asked the poet Ariosto's advice as to the personages 
 who were to be introduced in his frescoes. He studied 
 Dante's great poem and Petrarch's " Triumphs," and 
 consulted the works of Marsilio Ficino and the Floren- 
 tine Platonists on the one hand, and took the opinions of 
 Sadoleto and the learned theologians of the Papal Court 
 on the other. And out of all these different elements 
 his wonderful intelligence evolved one grand scheme of 
 decoration, embracing the whole realm of human know;, 
 ledge. "To apply this scheme to the irregular spaces of 
 the walls, cut up as they were with two large windows 
 and doors, was no easy task, and all Raphael's decora- 
 tive skill was needed to overcome these difficulties. 
 But he profited by his friend Bramante's advice in 
 these matters, and the immense labour which he 
 devoted to the preparation of his cartoons is shown 
 by the elaborate studies of the different groups and 
 figures which are preserved in the Albertini and the 
 Louvre, at Lille and Milan, at Oxford and Windsor. 
 
 On the pendentives of the vaulted ceiling, imme- 
 diately under the four allegorical figures which supply 
 the keynotes of the whole design, he painted original 
 and dramatic versions of The Fall of Man, The Judgment 
 of Solomon, The Triumph of Apollo over Marsyas, and 
 a female figure bending over a globe, intended to 
 represent Astronomy or Natural Science. On the 
 broad space of the right-hand wall under Theology, 
 Raphael placed his grand vision of the Church militant 
 and triumphant, popularly known as The Dispute of 
 the Blessed, Sacrament. Heaven and earth join in 
 adoration of the supreme Christian mystery, the 
 Eucharist which is the link between the seen and the 
 unseen world. Above we see the Father and the 
 Holy Angels in the highest Empyrean ; the Son 
 62 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 lifting his pierced hands between the Blessed Mother 
 and St. John the Baptist ; the Princes of the Church, 
 Adam and Abraham, Moses and David, as described 
 by Dante, throned by the side of the Apostles and 
 martyrs. Below, immediately under the golden rays 
 of the Dove descending out of Heaven, is the altar of 
 the Blessed Sacrament, with the saints and confessors 
 of all ages grouped around. The Fathers of the 
 Church are seated in full pontifical robes : Jerome 
 reading with the lion at his side ; Augustine dictating 
 his " Confessions," with the " Civitate Dei " at his 
 feet ; Gregory and Ambrose gazing upwards in joy 
 and wonder at the opened heavens. The great Pope 
 Innocent III stands between the Doctors of the 
 Dominican and Franciscan Orders, Aquinas and 
 Bonaventura ; on the lower step, in gold brocades 
 and tiara, we see Pope Sixtus IV, the uncle of Julius II ; 
 and behind him Dante and Savonarola — the friar 
 condemned to death by the hated Borgia Pope and 
 venerated as a saint and martyr by Raphael's friends 
 in Florence. In the group on the opposite side we 
 recognize the features of another friar of S. Marco, 
 Fra Angelico, the blessed painter whose portrait 
 by Luca Signorelli's hand at Orvieto Raphael may 
 have seen on his way to Rome. The animation of the 
 scene offers a striking contrast to the calm serenity 
 of the Saints in bliss. Some figures are reading and 
 writing, others are engaged in earnest conversation. 
 Behind Gregory the Great three men kneel in adoration, 
 while in the foreground a youth, with long golden 
 locks and outstretched hand, invites his companions 
 to join in the same act of worship. The mingled 
 variety and symmetry of the' picture, the extraordinary 
 skill with which these different figures are brought 
 into harmony, the beauty and repose of the spacious 
 sky and broad landscape in the background, all combine 
 
 63 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 to make this fresco one of the noblest examples of 
 monumental painting. 
 
 On the opposite wall of the Stanza, under the 
 allegorical form of Philosophy, Raphael painted his 
 other great fresco, the School of Athens. This name was 
 invented by a French traveller of the seventeenth 
 century, the Marquis de Seignelay, but the triumph 
 of human reason as contrasted with the mysteries of 
 the Christian faith is the true subject of the com- 
 position. Here, under a portico of stately Renaissance 
 architecture, adorned with statues of Apollo and 
 Minerva and classical bas-reliefs, the philosophers of 
 the old Greek world are assembled. Til£_idea_a£ the 
 temj3le_vajji- i t s b r o a d-flight of steps may have- been 
 "borrowed from Ghiberti's bas-relief of the Queea-ef 
 
 She'b3"on'T±Ce--B apLisieiv Gate atjilp ™*"^ font-jAp 
 architectur al scheme was, as Vasari tells us 7 proba bly 
 designed by B ramante. While in the ftitputA all the 
 different'parts of the picture meet at a central point, 
 in the School of Athens the composition/" is bro ken up 
 ; into separate groups and isolaledTigures engaged in 
 ! scientific rese arch a nd—discussion.-- But-Two~ibrms 
 -^onliiraRr*tTie~whole picture : Plato and Aristotle, 
 the heroes of Greek philosophy and leaders of the 
 rival schools, stand on the top of the steps engaged in 
 earnest discussion. A halo of golden light bathes their 
 forms, which are framed in by the central archway. 
 Plato, clad in violet robe and crimson mantle and 
 holding the book " Timaeus " in one hand, points 
 upwards to that heaven which is the home of the divine 
 idea. Aristotle, the teacher of practical wisdom, 
 wearing an olive-green robe and holding his " Ethics," 
 stretches out his hand over the earth. The figure of 
 Plato is singularly noble and impressive, and, according 
 to an old tradition, in this sage with the lofty brow and 
 flowing beard we see the features of Leonardo, for 
 64 
 
PLATO (VATICAN STANZE). 
 
DANTE (VATICAN STANZE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 whom Raphael, we know, had conceived a profound 
 admiration, and whose character and studies may well 
 have suggested the idea. The other philosophers are 
 grouped around these central figures, each with the 
 traditional appearance and special attributes by which 
 he was known to the scholars of the age. .Socrates, 
 conspicuous by his uncouth form and ugly face, 
 stands close, to Plato, reasoning with Alcibiadesfa^talL 
 youth in golden armour. Diogenes, in ragged clothes, 
 reclines on the steps, musing in solitude over his tablets, 
 with a wooden bowl at his side. Pythagoras, the 
 arithmetician, is the centre of a group on the left. 
 Euclid, in the likeness of Bramante, stoops down and 
 draws geometrical figures on the floor, surrounded by 
 four admiring scholars, who watch their teacher's 
 action with keen interest and attention. Ptolemy, 
 wearing a crown on his head, and holding a terrestrial 
 globe in his hand, stands facing Zoroaster, in whom 
 we recognize Castiglione's well-known features. A 
 host of other forms move to and fro, ascending and 
 descending the steps.' One young scholar in a long 
 brown cloak hurries in with a load of books under his 
 arm, another turns away as if tired of learning. A 
 father with a fair child in his arms listens to the words 
 of Plotinus, the teacher who is said to have charmed 
 even women and babes by the eloquence of his lan- 
 guage. The youth in the gold-embroidered mantle, 
 standing behind the group around Pythagoras, is 
 supposed to be the Pope's nephew Francesco della 
 Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who visited Rome with his 
 bride, Leonora Gonzaga, in the spring of 1510 ; and 
 in the handsome curly-headed boy on his left we 
 recognize the young Duchess's brother, Federico, 
 who had been sent to the Vatican as a hostage for his 
 father, and was the old Pope's pet and plaything. 
 Finally, in the two figures near Castiglione in the 
 
 £ 65 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 right-hand corner we have the portraits of Raphael 
 himself and of the Lombard master Sodoma, whom 
 with delicate courtesy he here acknowledges as his 
 associate in the decoration of the hall. An interesting 
 proof of the friendship between the two artists is 
 to be seen in the drawing of Raphael in the library 
 of Christ Church, Oxford, by the hand of Sodoma. 
 Passavant long ago described this drawing, which was 
 formerly ascribed to Leonardo, as Raphael's portrait, 
 and quite recently Dr. Frizzoni recognized it to be 
 the work of Sodoma. A ll of th pgf fifty- twn fjf»i™»g 
 are brought together in one finely balanced and 
 admirably arranged picture. When we consider the 
 masterly drawing and modelling of each individual 
 form and the beauty and variety of the separate 
 motives, the significance of every detail, and the 
 harmony and stately unity of the whole, we begin 
 to realize the consummate art, the wonderful skill 
 and industry displayed by Raphael in this magnificent 
 composition. Each figure in this vast assembly, each 
 look and gesture, embodies some abstract idea, some 
 system of teaching. The philosophy of the ancient 
 world as it was understood by the scholars and 
 humanists of the Renaissance is here set forth, clad 
 in forms of life and beauty. 
 
 The two remaining walls which Raphael had to 
 paint were broken by large windows, and the task 
 required all his ingenuity. But he was equal to the 
 occasion. In the space above the window looking 
 into the Belvedere Court, he painted the Mount of 
 Parnassus with Apollo and the Muses resting in a laurel 
 grove on the summit, and the poets of all ages wander- 
 ing along its grassy slopes. This bright Sun-god, 
 singing to the music of his viol, with the laurel crown 
 on his brows and the fount of Helicon at his feet, and 
 the Muses who recline beside him, are modelled less on 
 66 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 classical patterns than on Renaissance types, and recall 
 the works of Ferrarese and Florentine artists. Dante 
 stands by Homer and Virgil on the sacred mount, 
 Pindar and Horace converse with Ariosto and Tebaldeo, 
 with Boccaccio and Sannazzaro, and Petrarch lingers 
 by Sappho's side at the foot of the hill. Unfortunately 
 this lovely and idyllic conception was marred by the 
 cramped conditions under which the painter was 
 compelled to work, and lacks the charm of spacious 
 halls and wide horizons that is so marked a feature 
 of the other frescoes in the room. On the opposite 
 wall, where he had to represent the majesty of the law, 
 Raphael has employed another method. He painted 
 an allegorical group of the three cardinal virtues, 
 Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance, at the top of 
 the window ; and in the narrow spaces on either side 
 two subjects illustrating the history of secular and 
 ecclesiastical law. On the left, he represented Jus- 
 tinian, in his robes of imperial purple, delivering the 
 Pandects to his minister ; on the right, Pope Gregory 
 IX handing the Decretals to his secretary. In this 
 aged Pontiff we recognize the portrait of Julius II, 
 who, in June 15 11, had returned from his unsuccessful 
 campaign against the French armies, and had vowed 
 not to trim his beard until his foes were driven out of 
 Italy. Among the Cardinals in his suite are the 
 portraits of Giulio dei Medici and Alessandro Farnese, 
 both of whom afterwards became Popes. The mono- 
 chrome paintings under the Parnassus, representing 
 Alexander placing Homer's works in the tomb of 
 Achilles, and Augustus rescuing the ^Eneid from the 
 flames, were probably the work of Raphael's pupils ; 
 while the doors and woodwork of the hall were 
 adorned with rich intarsias, executed by Fra Giovanni 
 da Verona under his direction. 
 
 In his later frescoes Raphael attained to a higher 
 
 6 7 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 degree of technical perfection and a fuller knowledge 
 of pictorial effect. But in the interest of their sub- 
 jects the frescoes of this first Stanza surpass all his 
 other works. They reflect the noblest aspirations of 
 the Italian humanists, that deep sense of the unity of 
 .human thought and of the harmony which prevails 
 among the best and wisest thinkers of every age. In 
 their eyes no sharp line divided the old world from the 
 new. Plato and Augustine, Dante and Savonarola, 
 alike told of the same City of God. The poets and 
 philosophers of Greece, and the Fathers and Doctors 
 of the Christian Church, alike bore witness to the same 
 Father of all. This dream we know was cherished 
 by the finest intellects of the Renaissance ; it was 
 the common inheritance of Roman and Florentine 
 scholars ; but its most living and enduring image is 
 to be seen in this Vatican hall, painted by the hand 
 of Raphael. 
 
 The frescoes of the Camera della Segnatura were 
 completed, we learn from an inscription on the wall, 
 before the close of 151 1, "in the eighth year of Julius 
 the Second's reign," about the same time that Michel- 
 angelo's frescoes on the roof of the Sixtine Chapel 
 were unveiled. The Pope, well pleased with the 
 success of his experiment, rewarded the painter 
 liberally, and bade him begin the decoration of Jthe_ 
 next room without delays" 
 
 "The triumphs of the Church and the divine inter- 
 vention in favour of her Head were the themes which 
 Raphael was now called to commemorate in the 
 historical frescoes of the second Stanza. This time, 
 there can be no doubt, the subjects were chosen 
 by the Pope himself to celebrate the sudden and 
 almost miraculous defeat of the French king, Louis 
 XII, in June 15 12. "The armies of France have 
 vanished," wrote Vettori, "like mists before the sun." 
 68 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 " We have triumphed, Paris ! " exclaimed the Pope 
 in his exultation to his loyal servant and chronicler 
 Paris de Grassi, when the news reached Rome. " May 
 God give your Holiness joy ! " was the reply ; upon 
 which the Pope added, " And to all the' faithful 
 whom He has at length delivered from the yoke of 
 the barbarians." Julius II was acclaimed on all 
 sides as the deliverer of Italy, and his victory was 
 celebrated with solemn thanksgiving, processions, and 
 by illuminations and fireworks throughout the city. 
 The allusion to these contemporary events is evident in 
 the fresco which gives its name to the room, the 
 Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple of Jerusalem. 
 In the second book of Maccabees we read how the 
 Syrian captain Heliodorus invaded the precincts of 
 the Temple to carry off the treasure reserved for 
 widows and orphans, and how he was struck down and 
 trampled Under foot by a heavenly rider who suddenly 
 appeared, accompanied by two young men in dazzling 
 apparel. Raphael has represented this incident with 
 a dramatic vividness and splendour of pictorial effect 
 hitherto unequalled in historical art. We see the 
 terrified women and children thronging the temple 
 courts, the high priest kneeling in prayer before the 
 altar, and on the right Heliodorus lying prostrate on 
 the ground, under the hoofs of the celestial charger. 
 The swift rush of the avenging rider and his attendant 
 youths, the look on the face of the stricken man, the 
 terror and confusion of his followers, are all given with 
 marvellous power and skill. And on the left-hand 
 side of the picture, in marked contrast to this scene of 
 tumult and violence, Pope Julius appears, a venerable 
 and majestic figure, borne in his chair of state, high 
 above the heads of the surging throng. The presence 
 of the Pope calmly surveying the scene before him 
 is the best proof that the swift and sudden destruction 
 
 69 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 of the sacrilegious invader was meant to represent the 
 success of the Holy League and the Church's triumph 
 over her enemies, an event which could only be 
 ascribed to the immediate hand of God. The name of 
 " Jo. Petro de Foliariis Cremonens," probably some 
 Court official, is written on the roll of paper in the hand 
 of the man robed in black and crimson, walking at 
 the side of the Pope's chair ; while in the fine-looking 
 bearer who is so conspicuous a figure in the foreground - 
 we recognize the portrait of Raphael's friend and 
 assistant Marc Antonio Raimondi, the great engraver. 
 The bearer on the other side is probably Baldassare 
 Peruzzi, the Sienese artist who painted the Old Testa- 
 ment subjects and decorative framework on the ceiling 
 of this chamber. 
 
 Pope Julius appears again in the second fresco 
 which Raphael painted on the vaulted space over the 
 window. The subject of this picture was the miracle 
 wrought at Bolsena in 1263, when a German priest 
 who doubted the truth of the Sacramental doctrine 
 saw blood flow from the wafer at the consecration. 
 This miracle led to the institution of the Feast of 
 Corpus Christi and the building of the Cathedral 
 of Orvieto. Pope Julius had visited this sanctuary 
 on his first campaign against Bologna, and had shown 
 especial veneration for the relic of the blood-stained 
 corporal which was there preserved. Now in gratitude 
 for the success of his arms, he bade Raphael introduce 
 the Mass of Bolsena into the second Stanza, thus 
 forming a link between the fresco of the Disputd 
 in the first room and the example of God's protection 
 of His Church which is illustrated in the Heliodorus. 
 The altar is raised on a flight of steps in the choir of a 
 Renaissance church, enclosed by a balustrade, and 
 the priest stands at one end, gazing in awe and wonder 
 at the blood-stained corporal in his hand. The 
 
 7° 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 kneeling acolytes behind him, and the worshippers 
 below, look up with eager faces, intent on the miracle 
 that is happening before their eyes. Some bow down 
 in devout adoration, others push forward up the 
 steps, and a woman below stretches out her arms in a 
 rapture of love and yearning, while the children at 
 her feet lie huddled together, as yet unconscious of 
 the miracle. At the other end of the altar the old 
 Pope kneels with clasped hands, attended by Cardinal 
 Riario, the President of the Sacred College, and 
 three other prelates. At the foot of the steps a row 
 of papal guards in their rich liveries look on with 
 varied expressions of surprise and curiosity. In the 
 masterly portraiture of these different heads, in the 
 vigorous modelling and rich tones of the colouring 
 which mark this fresco, we note the influence of 
 Raphael's new friend the Venetian Sebastino del 
 Piombo, who came to Rome in 151 1, and was employed 
 by Agostino Chigi to decorate his villa on the Tiber. 
 The fruit of this intimacy soon became apparent in the 
 work of both masters. On the one hand, Sebastino 
 imitated the charm and distinction of Raphael's style 
 with such good effect that several of his portraits — 
 the Violinist, formerly in the Sciarra Palace, the Duke 
 of Grafton's well-known group of Carondelet and his 
 Secretaries, the Dorotea at Berlin — were long ascribed 
 to the greater master. On the other hand, Raphael 
 learnt the methods of Venetian painters from Gior- 
 gione's scholar, and added the last touch of perfection 
 to his art. Fortunately the Mass of Bolsena is in 
 better preservation than the other subjects in this 
 Stanza, and remains one of the finest examples of 
 fresco-painting in existence. 
 
 The Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison, which 
 Raphael now painted on the wall opposite the Mass of 
 Bolsena, is generally supposed to have been ordered 
 
 71 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 by Leo X to commemorate his escape from the 
 French after his capture at Ravenna. But, as Dr. 
 Pastor, the latest historian of the Popes, has shown, 
 there is good reason to assume that the subject was 
 chosen by Julius II, who had been Cardinal of S. 
 Pietro in Vincula, the church on the Esquiline, where 
 the chains which once bound the Prince of the Apostles 
 were preserved as sacred relics. When in June 15 12 
 the news of the rout and retreat of the French armies 
 reached Rome, the Pope went in triumphal procession 
 to his old titular church, and held a solemn service 
 of thanksgiving for the deliverance of Italy from her 
 foes. Then it was that he employed his favourite 
 master to paint this fresco in the hall where he had 
 already set forth the wonders wrought by God for 
 His Church on earth. The story is told in three 
 separate scenes. In the central space above the 
 window a radiant Angel is seen through the prison 
 bars, stooping down to wake the Apostle, who lies 
 asleep on the floor, bound between two armed soldiers. 
 On the right, the same white-robed Angel, holding 
 Peter by the hand, descends the steps leading to the 
 prison doors, and the Apostle follows him past the 
 sleeping guards as if in a trance — " he went out," 
 the Evangelist writes, " as if in a dream." On the 
 left, a warder, bearing a lighted torch in his hand, 
 rushes up the opposite flight of steps to give the alarm 
 and rouse the watch. The ruddy light of the flaming 
 torch is reflected in the polished armour of the sleeping 
 guards, and in the sky a crescent moon is seen hanging 
 over the distant city, while the dawn is breaking 
 in the far east. The skill with which Raphael has 
 balanced these different lights, and at the same time 
 kept close to the Scripture text, excited the utmost 
 admiration among his- contemporaries, and made 
 Vasari declare this fresco to be the rarest and most 
 72 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 divine of all his works. Modern critics are less 
 lenient, and recognize the hand of Giulio Romano 
 and other assistants in the muscular forms and solid 
 shadows of this work. 
 
 The subject of the fourth fresco on the long wall 
 opposite the Expulsion of Heliodorus — the Retreat 
 of Attila before Leo I — was originally chosen by 
 Julius II, who is seen crowned with the papal tiara 
 and throned on the " sedia gestatoria " in an old copy 
 of Raphael's first design which is still preserved at 
 Oxford. But since the work was not executed until 
 after the accession of Leo X, the new' Pope was intro- 
 duced as Leo I arresting the march of Attila and the 
 Huns. Instead, however, of being seated in his 
 chair, the Pope is represented riding on a white horse 
 and followed by a troop of mounted Cardinals. We 
 recognize the massive features of the Medici Pope and 
 the portraits of many well-known personages at the 
 Papal Court among the members of his suite, while 
 St. Peter and St. Paul are seen appearing with drawn 
 swords in the heavens. The barbarian king and his 
 savage horde recoil in terror at the sight ; the frightened 
 horses rear and plunge and the wind-tossed banners 
 and burning houses in the background add to the 
 general horror. Attila's noble charger is evidently 
 a reminiscence of the equestrian statue of Marcus 
 Aurelius on the Capitol, and several of the other 
 figures are borrowed from the antique bas-reliefs 
 which supplied Raphael with so many of his finest 
 motives. The impressive gesture of the Pope and the 
 terror and dismay of the barbarians are finely given, 
 but the scene is crowded and confused, the separate 
 figures are not always correctly drawn, and the land- 
 scape with the Coliseum and monuments of ancient 
 Rome is not in Raphael's style. This fresco as a whole 
 is distinctly inferior to the other three and bears 
 
 73 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 evident traces of an assistant's hand, while all four 
 have suffered from injudicious restoration. As in 
 the Camera della Segnatura, the woodwork of this 
 room was enriched with intarsias by Fra Giovanni ; 
 and Raphael's clever pupil, the Florentine Perino del 
 Vaga, afterwards painted a series of caryatides and 
 allegorical figures in grisaille on the walls under his 
 master's works. No trace now remains of the paintings 
 with which Raphael decorated the corridors leading 
 from the Stanza to the Belvedere during the last 
 months of Julius IPs life, but the fragment of a 
 putto, now in the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome, 
 probably belonged to a shield bearing the papal arms 
 which once formed part of these frescoes. 
 
 74 
 
'#' 
 
 *N 
 
 MADONNA DI FOL1GNO. 
 
VII 
 
 RAPHAEL IN ROME— MADONNAS 
 AND PORTRAITS 
 
 1508-15 16 
 
 THE great works in the Vatican Stanze upon 
 which Raphael was employed by Julius II 
 did not absorb all his powers, and many 
 of his best known Madonnas were painted during 
 the first years which he spent in Rome. One of the 
 earliest of these was the Madonna di Loreto, a picture 
 of the Child waking out of sleep and stretching out 
 both arms to His Mother, which was originally ordered 
 by Cardinal Riario for the church of S. Maria del 
 Popolo, and removed in the eighteenth century to the 
 shrine of Loreto, from which it afterwards disappeared. 
 Another version of this popular composition, which 
 has been often copied and engraved, may be seen in 
 the Vierge au Diademe of the Louvre, one of the 
 many pictures designed by Raphael and executed 
 by his favourite pupil Giulio Romano. Another 
 little panel, the Aldobrandini or Garvagh Madonna 
 in the National Gallery, was also an early work by 
 Giulio executed from Raphael's designs, and probably 
 painted under his eye. Four or five genuine Madonnas, 
 however, belong to this period. The circular panel 
 known as the Madonna di Casa d'Alba, now at St. 
 Petersburg, was painted for Pope Julius, and presented 
 
 75 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 by him to the monks of Nocera. In the gnarled 
 trunk of the oak, throwing out new shoots, against 
 which the Virgin kneels, we have an evident allusion 
 to the revived fortunes of the house of Delia Rovere, 
 and both the classical folds of the draperies and. 
 the distant Campagna in the background bear witness 
 to Raphael's Roman studies, which are mingled with 
 reminiscences of Michelangelo's tondi. On the cartoon 
 of this Madonna, in the Lille Museum, there is a 
 sketch for the Madonna delta Sedia, in which the 
 master once more adopts the same form and groups 
 his figures with masterly skill into the limited space at 
 his command. This dark-eyed Mother clasping the 
 Child in- her arms and wearing the striped handker- 
 chief of the Roman women on her head was evidently 
 some model who sat to Raphael when he was engaged 
 on the frescoes of the second Stanza, and the colouring 
 is as rich and glowing as that of the Mass of Bolsena 
 itself. Probably this picture — the most popular of 
 all Raphael's Madonnas — was painted for Cardinal 
 Giovanni dei Medici before he became Pope, since it 
 belonged to the Medici Collection as early as 1589. 
 
 Two other less known, but scarcely less beautiful, 
 Madonnas were also painted about this time. One is 
 the picture of the Virgin and Child in the Bridgewater 
 Gallery, which, although in some respects strongly 
 resembling the later Florentine Madonnas, is executed 
 in a freer and broader style, and is now generally 
 ascribed to the painter's Roman period. The simi- 
 larity of the Cupid guiding the nymph's shell-chariot 
 in the fresco of Galatea to the Child in this picture 
 seems to confirm the accuracy of this conclusion. 
 But this motive of the Child lying across His Mother's 
 knee and playfully trying to snatch her veil had 
 long been in the painter's mind, and evidently cost 
 him much anxious research, as we see from the sketches 
 76 
 
Broffi 
 
 POPE JULIUS II. (PITTI). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 which cover whole sheets in the British Museum, at 
 Windsor and Florence. From these different studies 
 Raphael finally evolved the design of rare grace and 
 beauty which we admire in Lord Ellesmere's picture, 
 The other is the Madonna with the Child standing on 
 a parapet — a motive common in Venetian art and 
 probably suggested to Raphael by his friend Sebastiano 
 del Piombo. Like the Bridgewater Madonna, this 
 picture came to • England from the Orleans Gallery, 
 and once belonged to the poet Rogers, at whose sale, 
 in 1856, it was bought by Mr. Mackintosh, Recorder 
 of Bombay, whose daughter is the present owner. 
 Unfortunately this once lovely work has suffered 
 terribly from neglect and repaint, but not even the 
 restorer's hand has been "able wholly to destroy the 
 exquisite charm and tenderness of Raphael's original 
 design. It is quite possible that this picture was the 
 Little Virgin and Christ by Raphael mentioned in the 
 inventory of King Charles I's sale, and valued on that 
 occasion at the high price of eight hundred pounds. 
 This quadretto, as it was called, came from Mantua, 
 and may have been the very painting which Isabella 
 d'Este ordered in 1515, but which Castiglione dis- 
 covered to be still unfinished four years later. In all 
 probability it remained in the same state at the time 
 of Raphael's death and was afterwards completed by 
 other hands. 
 
 The larger and more elaborate altar-piece which 
 Raphael painted for the Papal chamberlain, Sigis- 
 mondo dei Conti, before the bishop's death in 15 12, 
 originally adorned the Franciscan church of Ara 
 Cceli, but was removed to Conti's native city of 
 Foligno, and afterwards taken to Paris. The paint- 
 ing was then transferred to canvas, and ultimately 
 brought back to Rome and placed in the Gallery of the 
 Vatican. Here Raphael, forsaking alike Umbrian and 
 
 77 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Florentine traditions, ventures boldly on a new depar- 
 ture, and shows us the Madonna and Child no longer 
 throned under a canopy, but floating on the clouds of 
 Heaven, encircled with a halo of cherub heads. On 
 the flower-grown sward at her feet, the Baptist stands 
 pointing upwards to the Virgin, and St. Francis, 
 kneeling at his feet, gazes with rapt face on the heavenly 
 vision, while at the same time, mindful of sorrowing 
 humanity, he stretches out a hand to earth, and 
 commends his children to mercy. Opposite, St. 
 Jerome lays his hand on the head of the aged donor, 
 who, clad in ermine collar and crimson robes, kneels 
 in devout worship at his side. A lovely boy-angel, 
 holding a tablet, stands between the two groups, 
 looking up at the Virgin, and forms a link between the 
 saints on earth and the seraph host in Heaven ; and 
 in the distance the towers of Foligno, with a rainbow 
 and meteor in the sky, remind us that this picture 
 was intended to commemorate the prelate's deliverance 
 from a fireball which had exploded near him in his 
 native city. Nowhere is Raphael's skill in composition 
 more clearly shown than in "this altar-piece, yet 
 nowhere are his simple charm and tender feeling more 
 evident. The attitude of the Madonna resembles 
 that of the Virgin in Leonardo's unfinished Adoration 
 at Florence ; the laughing Child turning round in 
 her arms to look down at the boy-angel below has 
 some affinity with the Bridgewater Child; but the 
 whole picture is bathed in the golden glow which was 
 a distinctive feature of the master's later Roman 
 time. 
 
 The development of Raphael's style is equally 
 apparent in the portraits of his Roman days. Fine 
 and lifelike as were the portraits of his early Umbrian 
 and Florentine time, they cannot compare in vigour 
 of characterization and pictorial beauty with those 
 
 78 - 
 
LEO X. (PITT1). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 which he painted during the last ten years of his life. 
 There is a union of dramatic power and intensity 
 of expression in the portraits of his Roman period, 
 of rich colouring and grandeur of style, which raises 
 them to the highest rank among the world's great 
 pictures. Foremost among these is the portrait of 
 Pope Julius II, which he painted in 15 1 1, for the church 
 of S. Maria del Popolo. Critics are still divided as to 
 whether the Uffizi or Pitti picture was the original 
 work, and it is possible that both are by the hand of 
 the master. But in both portraits the great old 
 Pope is represented, in Vasari's words, " looking so 
 exactly like himself that one trembles before him as 
 if he were still alive." He is sitting in his arm-chair, 
 wearing a purple cape, red velvet cap, his head bent 
 downwards and his brows seamed with deep furrows. 
 But every line of the wrinkled and emaciated face 
 and firmly closed mouth reveals the restless energy 
 and iron will of the man. 
 
 It is very interesting to compare this portrait of 
 Julius II in his last days with that of his successor 
 Leo X, which Raphael painted seven years later. 
 The Medici Pope is represented sitting at a table 
 with the eye-glass which he habitually used owing to 
 his short sight, and a book of miniatures open before 
 him. His nephew, Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, and 
 his secretary, Cardinal dei Rossi, stand on either side, 
 but their figures are purposely kept in the background 
 and only serve to bring the chief sitter into greater 
 prominence. The Pope's heavy jaw, short neck, 
 and fat white hands are all accurately reproduced, 
 and the intellectual acuteness and refinement of the 
 massive head and sensuous features are brought out 
 with extraordinary skill. We have before us the 
 cultured, pleasure-loving man who said, " Let us enjoy 
 the Papacy, since God has given it to us," and realize 
 
 79 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 all the strength of the passion, the ambition, and 
 vindictiveness that lay hidden under this placid and 
 kindly exterior. As a revelation of human character 
 this portrait of Leo X is as fine as that of Julius II ; 
 as a work of art it is even finer. "The figures," 
 writes Vasari, " appear to be, not painted, but carved 
 in relief ; the furs and velvets, the gold and silk, 
 the chased silver bell, the gilded ball of the arm-chair 
 with its reflection of the Pope's shoulders, the lights 
 of the windows and the room are all represented with 
 the same marvellous exactness and reality." The 
 same power of transforming ugliness, the same skill 
 in seizing on the, best aspects of the sitter, mark the 
 portrait of Tommaso Inghirami, the librarian of the 
 Vatican, better known by his surname of Phaedra, 
 from the part which as a youth he had played in the 
 performance of the tragedy of Hippolytus at the Papal 
 Court. This distinguished humanist, whom his friend 
 Erasmus called the Cicero of the age, is represented 
 sitting at his desk with a pen in his hand, and his 
 squinting eye and intellectual face turned upwards 
 as if seeking some new inspiration for his theme. 
 Unfortunately the original of this fine portrait, which 
 hung in the Inghirami Palace at Volterra, has now 
 been removed to America, and is only known to most 
 of us by an inferior copy in the Pitti. The double 
 portrait of the Venetian humanists, Andrea Navagero 
 and Agostino Beazzano, in the Doria Palace, was 
 recognized by Morelli as the work which the Anonimo 
 saw in Pietro Bembo's house at Padua in 1525, and to 
 which Bembo himself alludes in a letter of July 1538. 
 The conception and treatment of the two figures 
 are entirely different. Beazzano, the good-natured, 
 indolent student, is represented full face, with the 
 light playing on his smooth-shaven features. Navagero, 
 the stern, vigorous man of action, bearded and dark- 
 80 '• 
 
PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL BY SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO 
 (BUDA PESTH) 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 haled, is standing with his figure in profile and the 
 light falling on his neck, looking back at the spectator 
 over his shoulder, a pose commonly adopted by Vene- 
 tian portrait-painters of Giorgione's school. This 
 has led the able critic of the Prado Gallery, Mr. 
 Charles Ricketts, to conclude that the attribution 
 of Navagero's portrait to Raphael is wrong, and 
 that this figure was in reality a separate work by 
 Sebastiano del Piombo. But this is not the only 
 instance in which Raphael imitated the »tyle and 
 borrowed the attitudes of the Venetian artists. Both 
 Navagero and Beazzano, we know, were in Rome in 
 15 16, and their names are linked with those of the 
 painter of Urbino in a well-known passage of Bembo's 
 letters. " To-morrow," he wrote on the 3rd of April, 
 to his friend Cardinal Bibbiena in Florence, " I am 
 going with Raphael, Navagero, Beazzano, and Bal- 
 dassare Castiglione to Tivoli, where I have not been for 
 twenty-seven years. We mean to see both old and 
 new, and all that is beautiful in the country round. 
 I go to please Messer Andrea, who is leaving for 
 Venice the day after Pasquino," the 25th of April, 
 a day when all the wits in Rome hang their verses and 
 epigrams on the torso of Pasquino. 
 
 Many of the other portraits which excited the 
 admiration of Raphael's friends in Rome have perished. 
 The picture which, at Isabella d'Este's request, he 
 painted of her son, young Federico Gonzaga, in the 
 jewelled cap and doublet of gold brocade in which he 
 rode at the side of Julius II to the opening of the 
 Lateran Council, was interrupted by the Pontiff's 
 death. " Messer Raphaello of Urbino," wrote the 
 prince's tutor to the Marchesa, when the old Pope 
 lay r"ying, " has returned the cap and doublet of 
 Signor Federico, in which he was to paint his portrait, 
 and begs your Excellency to pardon him, since at the 
 
 f 81 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 present moment he finds it impossible to give his 
 mind to the work." After the painter's own death, 
 Castiglione recovered the portrait, which had been 
 finished either by the hand of Raphael or one of his 
 pupils, and sent it to the Duke at Mantua ; but 
 although it was among the paintings bought by 
 Charles I in 1627, and afterwards belonged to the 
 Lucys of Charlecote, it has now disappeared. The 
 two portraits of the Pope's brother, Giuliano dei 
 Medici, Duke of Nemours, and of his nephew, Lorenzo, 
 Duke of Urbino, which were pronounced to be 
 masterpieces of art, have also vanished, and a similar 
 fate has befallen a portrait of the Ferrarese poet, 
 Antonio Tebaldeo, of which Bembo speaks with so 
 much enthusiasm. " Raphael," he wrote to Cardinal 
 Bibbiena in April 15 16, "has painted our Tebaldeo 
 in so lifelike a manner that he is not so exactly himself 
 in actual existence as in this picture. For my own 
 part, I never saw so perfect a likeness. You may 
 imagine what Messer Antonio says and thinks of this, 
 and indeed he has good reason to be proud, for in 
 point of likeness the portraits of Messer Baldassare 
 Castiglione and of our good and lamented Duke 
 [Giuliano dei Medici] — God grant him eternal bliss — 
 might be by the hand of an apprentice, compared 
 with this of Tebaldeo. I am very envious and really 
 think I must have my own portrait painted next." 
 
 This likeness of Tebaldeo was formerly supposed to 
 be the portrait belonging to the Scarpa Collection at 
 La Motta in Friuli, now in the Budapest Museum. 
 But this fine picture was recognized by Morelli as 
 being a work of still greater interest — the portrait of 
 Raphael himself, by the hand of Sebastiano del 
 Piombo. The picture indeed bears all the distinctive 
 features of the Venetian artist's style, and an eighteenth- 
 century engraving of the subject is mentioned by 
 82 
 
BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE (LOUVRE). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Passavant in his list of Raphael's portraits. The 
 Venetian has painted the great master standing before 
 an open window, looking out on the aqueducts and 
 towers of the Campagna, with his hands resting on a 
 stone parapet in the corner. The rich fur mantle 
 and fine white linen, the easy grace and courtly 
 bearing, all bear witness to the exalted position 
 which the painter of Urbino had attained at the Papal 
 Court. We see him here as he was in the flower of 
 his age and at the height of his splendid career, with 
 the frank air and sunny smile, the gracious presence and 
 charming manner which no one was able to resist. 
 
 When so much has perished, it is some consolation 
 to feel that two of the finest portraits which Raphael 
 painted at this period have been preserved, and that 
 these should represent two of his most intimate friends. 
 One is the picture of Castiglione which went to 
 England with the other " Mantuan pieces " in the 
 time of Charles I, and now hangs in the Salon Carre 
 of the Louvre. The other is that of Cardinal Bibbiena 
 in the Prado of Madrid. Both are painted with a 
 freedom and mastery which Velasquez alone has 
 equalled, and with a refinement to which the great 
 Spaniard himself never attained. The quiet harmony 
 of sober black and grey, the velvet collar and sleeves 
 and lace ruffles, the indescribable air of elegance and 
 repose in the portrait of Castiglione, agree with all 
 that we know of the writer of the " Cortigiano," who 
 was himself the best example of his own perfect 
 courtier. In the same way, the rich cape of red 
 watered^ silk and lawn sleeves, the blue eyes and chestnut 
 hair, the long aquiline nose and cunning mouth, 
 correspond with our idea of the wily diplomat and 
 witty writer, the " bel Bernardo " who was the closest 
 friend both of Castiglione and of Raphael. The 
 marked difference between this Madrid picture and 
 
 83 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 the portrait of the same Cardinal in the Pitti, which 
 also bears the name of Raphael, has led some critics 
 to reject the old tradition which associates Bibbiena's 
 name with this magnificent work. But in point of 
 fact the features are the same. Only, while the 
 Prado portrait represents the Cardinal in the prime 
 of life, in the other he appears to be broken. in health 
 and prematurely aged. This last picture, it is plain, 
 was either painted by Raphael's scholars, or else is a 
 copy from a lost original by his hand. 
 
 With these triumphs of Raphael's art we may rank 
 another portrait which was probably painted about 
 the same time, the so-called Donna Velata of the Pitti, 
 which Vasari mentions as being the property of the 
 Florentine merchant Matteo Botti, and which was 
 bequeathed by a member of his family in 1619 to 
 the Grand Duke Cosimo II. This picture is of 
 especial interest. It is the only woman portrait 
 of Raphael's Roman days, and there can be little 
 doubt that it represents the features of his beloved. 
 The fable of the master's love for the baker's daughter 
 has long been rejected as a modern invention, and 
 the coarse and vulgar portrait known as the Fornarina 
 in the Barberini Palace is now generally acknowledged 
 to be the work of Giulio Romano. Throughout his 
 short life Raphael was too much absorbed in work to 
 think of marriage. He steadily declined the advan- 
 tageous proposals which he received from his friends 
 at Urbino, and even when Cardinal Bibbiena offered 
 him his niece, he delayed to make her his wife, and put 
 off the marriage repeatedly until Maria herself died. 
 But Vasari tells us that he " loved one woman to the 
 end, and made a beautiful and living portrait of her " 
 which his friend, " the good and worthy Matteo Botti, 
 kept as a precious relic for the painter's sake." Like 
 the portraits of Castiglione and Bibbiena, this picture 
 84 
 
By permission of Messrs, Jlmmi, Clement. 
 
 CARDINAL BIBBIENA (PRADO). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 is painted with a light and rapid touch, and has the 
 same pearly tones and warm golden glow. 
 
 The lady is of noble Roman type with regular 
 features and dark, radiant eyes. Her white bodice 
 is embroidered with gold and the sleeves are of striped 
 yellow damask. She wears a veil on her head and a 
 string of shining stones round her throat, and lays her 
 right hand on her breast. We know not whether this 
 was the mistress to whom the painter addressed the 
 sonnets on the back of the sketches for the Disputa — 
 that lady of his love who was far above him and 
 whose name must never be revealed — or the " Mamola 
 bella " of whom he speaks in the letter to his uncle at 
 Urbino. But we know that this fair face haunted his 
 dreams, and meets us again in two of the noblest 
 altar-pieces which he painted during these last years 
 in Rome, the St. Cecilia and the Madonna di San' 
 Sisto. . 
 
 The first of these was ordered in 15 13 by Cardinal 
 dei Pucci for his kinswoman, Elena Duglioli, a noble 
 lady of Bologna, but only finished two years later. 
 St. Cecilia is represented clad in shining raiment of 
 white and gold, standing in a wooded landscape, 
 holding her organ in her hand, and attended by four 
 saints. On the right, the Magdalen, a tall and 
 stately form, wearing the features of the Pitti maiden, 
 stands with her vase of precious ointment. On the 
 left, St. Paul leans on his sword, rapt in silent medita- 
 tion. Behind them a bearded St. Augustine and a 
 youthful St. John stand with their eyes fixed on the 
 Saint's countenance, waiting for the organ melodies 
 to sound, while St. Cecilia, lifting her eyes to Heaven, 
 sees the light breaking in the sky and hears the angel 
 song. The organ in the Saint's hand and the musical 
 instruments at her feet are said by Vasari to have been 
 painted by Giovanni da Udine, one of Raphael's 
 
 85 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 favourite assistants, while the rest of the work was 
 entirely executed by his own hand. When, however, 
 the picture was taken to Paris, and there transferred 
 to canvas, it was completely repainted, and at the 
 present time the actual design is all that is left us of 
 Raphael's work. 
 
 The Madonna di San Sisto was originally painted 
 for the Cistercians of S. Sisto of Piacenza about 1515 
 or 15 16, and was probably ordered by Antonio dei 
 Monti, Cardinal di San Sisto. In 1753 this famous 
 picture, was sold by the friars to Augustus III of Saxony 
 for nine thousand pounds, and has since then been the 
 ornament of the Dresden Gallery. Like the great 
 portraits of Raphael's latter years, this altar-piece 
 is painted on canvas, and has the same rich colour, 
 the same golden tones and transparent shadows. 
 In the Foligno altar-piece he had represented the 
 Virgin throned on the clouds and worshipped by the 
 saints on earth. Here he went a step further, and 
 painted the Madonna and Child floating down from 
 the highest heaven, adored by saints in glory. The 
 altar-hangings have, as it were, been drawn back 
 suddenly to reveal the wondrous vision, and the aged 
 Pope Sixtus looks up in devout adoration, while St. 
 Barbara bends her gaze downwards and smiles on the 
 angel-boys, who rest their elbows on the parapet 
 below, and look up at the Virgin and Child with large, 
 wistful eyes. The surface bears marks of a restorer's 
 hand. The colour has peeled off in places, and St. 
 Barbara's face is badly damaged, but still the picture 
 retains a sublime grandeur and majesty that render it 
 unlike all others. The majestic Child, cradled in 
 His Mother's arms and looking out with grave wonder 
 on the world ; the Divine Virgin, with the serene 
 brow and mystic light in the eyes, have a glory that 
 is not of earth. The pure line and flowing draperies, 
 86 
 
LA DONNA VELATA (PITTI). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 the perfect rhythm of the design, recall the Madonna 
 del Gran Duca, and thus recollections of the painter's 
 earliest Florentine Virgins are blended with dreams 
 of the unknown maiden whom he loved, in this last 
 great creation. 
 
 87 
 
VIII 
 
 RAPHAEL AS ARCHITECT AND 
 DECORATOR 
 
 1513-1518 
 
 T< 
 HE year 1 5 14 was a memorable one in Raphael's 
 life. During this year he finished the frescoes 
 of the Stanza d'Eliodoro, which, as we have 
 -seen, mark a new and important stage in his develop- 
 ment, and was appointed architect of St. Peter's. The 
 accession of a new Pope had made no difference in the 
 position which the master held at the Vatican, and 
 from the first Leo^X honoured him with marks of 
 especial favour. His own friends were raised to high 
 office : Pietro Bembo became one of the papal secre- 
 taries ; Bibbiena was created a cardinal ; and the 
 Pope's brother Giuliano, who had taken refuge at 
 Urbino when the Medici were in exile, appointed the 
 painter to a post in his household. As Leo X himself 
 told Sebastiano del Piombo, Michelangelo was too 
 terrible a man for him, but in the courteous and 
 charming master of Urbino he found an artist after 
 his own heart. When Bramante died, Raphael was 
 appointed chief architect in his place with a salary of 
 three hundred ducats, in accordance with his kinsman's 
 last wishes. He had, it seems, already acted as 
 Bramante's assistant in designing Roman churches and 
 palaces, and in the papal brief of 1st April 15 14 con- 
 88 
 
SAINT CECILIA (BOLOGNA). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 firming his appointment he is described as not only 
 excellent as a painter, in the Opinion of all, but as 
 having been chosen and held worthy by Bramante to 
 continue the building of the temple of the Prince of 
 the Apostles. Raphael lost no time in entering on 
 his new duties, and by August had prepared a wooden 
 model of St. Peter's for the Pope's inspection. Bra- 
 mante's original design was to be altered to a Latin 
 cross, and the nave, cupola, and portico were to be 
 planned on a larger and grander scale. These vast 
 schemes, however, were never carried out. The new 
 choir and transepts which Bramante had raised hastily 
 to satisfy the impatience of Pope Julius were found to 
 be in a dangerous state, and all Raphael's time was spent 
 in propping up the pillars and strengthening the 
 foundations laid by his predecessor. The papal 
 treasury was exhausted by Leo X's extravagance, and 
 Raphael died before funds could be raised to carry out 
 his plans. 
 
 Two letters written by the painter during the 
 summer of 15 14 show the natural pride and pleasure 
 of the young man in his exalted post, and the ardour 
 with which he entered upon his new duties. The first 
 was addressed to his old uncle Simone Ciarla, who had 
 apparently begged his nephew to return to Urbino, 
 take a wife, and settle down in his old home. This 
 Raphael shows him to be impossible, and then proceeds 
 with delightful frankness to explain the causes which 
 detain his return and put the marriage out of the 
 question : 
 
 " Dearest in the place of a father, — I have received 
 your letter, which is very dear to me, as a proof that 
 you are not angry with me, which would indeed be 
 wrong, considering how tiresome it is to write when 
 there is no need. Now that the question is of impor- 
 tance, I answer you and will tell you all that I have 
 
 89 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 to say in explanation. First of all, in the mattef 
 of taking a wife, I am perfectly satisfied with regard 
 to her whom you wished to give me, and thank God 
 continually that I neither married her nor any other, 
 and in this I have been wiser than you. I am sure 
 you will recognize this too, and will see that if I had 
 done as you wished I should not be where I am now. 
 At the present time I have property in Rome with 
 three thousand gold ducats, and an income of fifty 
 gold crowns, as his Holiness gives me a salary of 
 three hundred gold ducats for superintending the 
 fabric of St. Peter, which will continue as long as I 
 live ; and I am sure to earn more from other sources 
 and am paid whatever I choose to ask for my work. 
 And I have begun to paint another room for his 
 Holiness which will bring me one thousand two hun- 
 dred gold ducats, so that you see, my dearest uncle, 
 that I do honour to you and to all my family and to 
 my country. But none the less, I always have you 
 in my heart, and when I hear your name I feel as if 
 I heard that of my father. But do not complain of 
 me if I do not write to you, since I might rather 
 complain of you, who sit all day with your pen in 
 hand and yet allow six months to pass between one 
 letter and the next, and yet for all that I am not as 
 angry with you as you wrongfully are with me. 
 I have left the subject of marriage, but to return to 
 it, Imust tell you in reply that Santa Maria in Portico 
 [Cardinal Bibbiena] wishes to give me one of his 
 relatives, and with your leave and that of my uncle the 
 priest I have promised to do what his Reverend 
 Highness desires. I cannot break my word, as we are 
 more intimate friends than ever, and I will soon tell you 
 all. Have patience until this thing is finally settled, 
 and if it does not come off, I will do as you wish and 
 tell Francesco Buffa that if he has proposals to make 
 
 9° 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 I have others, and can find a fair maiden here in Rome, 
 of most excellent repute and family, whose friends 
 are ready to give me a dowry of -three thousand gold 
 crowns, and that in house-property in Rome, where 
 one hundred ducats are certainly worth more than 
 two hundred in Urbino. As for remaining in Rome, 
 I cannot live anywhere else for some time to come, on 
 account of the fabric of St. Peter, now that I am in 
 Bramante's place. But what city in the world can 
 compare with Rome, what enterprise is more worthy 
 than this of St. Peter, which is the first temple in the 
 World ? And these are the grandest works which 
 have ever been seen, and will cost more than a million 
 in gold, and the Pope has decided to spend sixty 
 thousand ducats a year on the fabric and can think 
 of nothing else. He has given me as colleague a very 
 learne'd old friar, who is more than eighty, and the 
 Pope, seeing that he cannot live long, has resolved 
 to give him to me for a companion, since he is a man 
 of extraordinary knowledge, so that I may learn any 
 fine secrets of architecture that he has to teach and 
 become perfect in this art. His name is Fra Giocondo ; 
 and every day the Pope sends for us and discusses the 
 fabric for some time with us. I beg you to go and see 
 the Duke and Duchess and tell them this, for I know 
 they will be pleased to hear that one of their servants 
 is doing them honour, and commend me to their 
 Highnesses, as I continually commend myself to you. 
 Greet all our friends and relations for me, and most of 
 all Ridolfo, who has shown me so much true affection. 
 On the ist of July 1514, 
 
 " Your Raphael, 
 
 Painter in Rome." 
 
 Raphael's old uncle evidently complied with the 
 writer's request and showed this letter to the Duke 
 
 9 1 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 and Duchess, for it was found among the papers of 
 the last Duke of Urbino that were brought to Rome 
 in the seventeenth century, and was seen by Richardson 
 a hundred years later. The second letter was written 
 in a more polished and courtly style and addressed to 
 Raphael's loyal friend and patron, Baldassare Castig- 
 lione, who had lately left Rome for the Court of 
 Urbino. 
 
 " My Lord Count, — I have made several drawings 
 of the subject which your Highness suggested, and 
 all who see them seem well satisfied, if they are not 
 all base flatterers ! But I confess that they do not 
 satisfy my judgment, because, I fear, they will not 
 satisfy yours. I send them and hope your Highness will 
 choose any one which you may count worthy. Our 
 Lord the Pope has done me the honour to lay a great 
 burden on my shoulders. This is the charge of the 
 fabric of St. Peter. I hope I shall not sink under the 
 load, especially since the model I have made pleases 
 his Holiness and has been praised by several men of 
 fine intellect. But my thoughts still soar to greater 
 heights. I long to find out more about the noble 
 forms of ancient monuments, and I know not if my 
 flight may not prove to be that of Icarus. Vitruvius 
 has brought me much light, but has not shown me all 
 I want to know. As for the Galatea, I should count 
 myself to be a great master if half the things that your 
 Highness finds in her were there, but in your words 
 I recognize the love that you bear me. And I tell 
 you that if I am to paint a beautiful woman I must 
 see several, and make the condition that your Highness 
 should be with me to choose the fairest '. But since 
 good judges and lovely women are alike rare, I make 
 use of a certain ideal that is in my mind. If it has 
 any artistic excellence, I know not, but I try hard to 
 92 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 reach it. Let me have your Highness's commands. 
 From Rome." 
 
 This letter fixes the date of one of Raphael's finest 
 works, the fresco of Galatea which he painted in the 
 hall of Agostino Chigi's villa. Here Sebastiano del 
 Piombo had already painted a fresco of Polyphemus 
 piping on the Sicilian shore, but his work failed to 
 satisfy the wealthy banker, and Raphael was induced to 
 undertake the companion subject of Galatea driving 
 her chariot of dolphins on the waves. The theme had 
 an especial interest for Castiglione, who, one carnival 
 at Urbino, had composed a pastoral play in which 
 the Duchess Elizabeth figured as the nymph Galatea, 
 and he probably helped Raphael in the composition 
 of the fresco. The details of the scene, the Tritons 
 riding their sea-horses, the amorini shooting arrows 
 from the clouds, the shell which serves the goddess for 
 chariot, are borrowed from antique bas-reliefs, and 
 the joyous nymph, with her long locks and purple 
 drapery floating on the breeze, is the very incarnation 
 of the Greek world as it appeared to the humanists of 
 Leo X's court. All Rome applauded Raphael's latest 
 composition, and Chigi in his delight declared that 
 no other artist should ever work for him. At his 
 urgent request the painter adorned the archway of 
 the Chigi chapel in Santa Maria della Pace with a 
 fresco of the four Sibyls and their attendant genii. 
 These beautiful but sorely damaged paintings, which 
 Vasari pronounced to be the most perfect of all the 
 master's works, undoubtedly reveal the influence of 
 Michelangelo. But Raphael after his usual habit 
 only assimilated certain elements in his great rival's 
 works and adapted them to his own uses. These 
 cunningly devised figures, the youthful Cumsean 
 Sibyl lifting her impassioned gaze to Heaven and her 
 
 93 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 aged and hooded sister of Tibur looking out sadly 
 into the dark future, are moulded with all the human 
 charm and grace that were Raphael's peculiar heritage, 
 and form a striking contrast to the solemn and majestic 
 creations of his great rival. They recall the Allegories 
 on the ceiling of the first Stanza, and are in their way 
 models of decorative art. That they excited Michel- 
 angelo's admiration we know for certain. Cinelli 
 tells us that Raphael was only paid five hundred ducats 
 for this work, and when. he remonstrated at the inade- 
 quacy of the sum, Chigi's cashier referred the matter 
 to Buonarroti, who declared that each head in the 
 fresco was worth one hundred ducats. On hearing 
 this decision the banker told his agent to send Raphael 
 another five hundred ducats without delay. " Be 
 careful to treat Raphael with due courtesy and see 
 that he is satisfied," he added, " for if he asks to be paid 
 for the draperies as well we shall be ruined ! " None 
 the less Chigi employed Raphael to design his sepulchral 
 chapel in S. Maria del Popolo and the mosaics of the 
 Creation, with angels setting the planets in motion 
 as described in the " Convito " of Dante. Another 
 fresco of the Prophet Isaiah was painted by Raphael 
 about this time on a pillar in S. Agostino for Bishop 
 Gorlitz, the learned German prelate who entertained 
 'the Roman scholars in his gardens on the Quirinal. 
 But this figure was entirely repainted by Daniele da 
 Volterra, and little trace of the original design is now 
 remaining. 
 
 Both architecture and archaeology made great 
 demands on the painter's time, and these occupations, 
 which drew him away from his true vocation, are the 
 more to be deplored since so little of his work in these 
 directions is now in existence. The palace which he 
 built for the papal Chamberlain, Giovanni Bran- 
 cantonio dell' Aquila, in the Borgo Nuovo, was pulled 
 
 94 
 
GALATEA (FARNESINA). 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 down in the seventeenth century to make room for 
 the colonnade of St. Peter's, and the plans which he 
 made for the facade of San Lorenzo in Florence have 
 been lost. The stately Pandolfini Palace in the Via 
 San Gallo at Florence was executed after his death 
 from designs which he made when he accompanied 
 Leo X to Florence in November 15 15 to give his 
 opinion on the facade of S. Lorenzo, which was 
 eventually designed by Michelangelo. In Rome the 
 only architectural works by Raphael now remaining 
 are the Cortile di San Damaso and the Loggie of the 
 Vatican, which he completed in Bramante's style, 
 and the once sumptuous but now dilapidated Villa 
 Madama, which Cardinal Giulio dei Medici built from 
 his plans on the slopes of Monte Mario. 
 
 In August 15 15 Leo X issued a papal brief by which 
 Raphael was appointed Inspector of Antiquities in 
 Rome and in the district extending ten miles round, 
 and was authorized to buy ancient marbles and stones 
 for the works at St. Peter's. No inscriptions were to 
 be destroyed without his leave, and the discovery of 
 fragments of temples and statues was to be reported 
 to him within three days. The master thus en- 
 deavoured to arrest the wholesale destruction of classical 
 monuments which he had witnessed during the last 
 few years, as he says in his Latin epistle to the Pope. 
 At the same time he gladly availed himself of the 
 facilities thus afforded him to examine the antique 
 remains that were daily being brought to light. 
 When the Baths of Titus were excavated, Raphael 
 and his assistants, Vasari tells us, hastened to study 
 the grotteschi in the vault, and his own paintings 
 abound in motives that were borrowed alike from these 
 frescoes and from the bas-reliefs of marble sarcophagi 
 still in existence. 
 
 Meanwhile the decoration of the Vatican Stanza, 
 
 95 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 as we learn from Raphael's letter to his uncle, was 
 proceeding. The third room, by Pope Leo's desire, 
 was adorned with frescoes from the lives of Leo III 
 and Leo IV. A portrait of his new ally, Francis I, 
 was introduced in the scene of Charlemagne receiving 
 the imperial crown, and Leo X and his Cardinals 
 were represented receiving the submission of the 
 defeated Saracens on the shore of Ostia. But although 
 Raphael designed these subjects and may have painted 
 a few of the chief portraits, the greater part of their 
 execution was left to his assistants. The fine com- 
 position of the Incendio del Borgo, with its animated 
 groups of men, women, and children escaping from 
 the burning houses, was doubtless his invention, but 
 the cartoons were the work of Giulio Romano and his 
 comrades. Both the drawing of the workmen carrying 
 water in the UfEzi* and the nudes in the Albertina, 
 which were sent to Albert Diirer as Raphael's work, 
 were executed by this able but coarse and slovenly 
 artist, and only in a few pen-and-ink sketches which 
 have been preserved in different public and private 
 collections do we find any trace of the master's only 
 hand. 
 
 Many of these drawings, so slight and yet so masterly 
 in their classical feeling and lightness of touch, served 
 as designs for plates executed by Marc Antonio 
 Raimondi, the Bolognese engraver, who joined Raphael 
 in 1510, and remained closely associated with him for 
 many years. The Massacre of the Innocents, the 
 Lucrezia, Judgment of Paris, Venus and Cupid, and a 
 whole series of noble engravings, bearing the joint 
 signature of the two artists, were issued in this manner, 
 while a lucrative and extensive sale of these prints was 
 carried on by another of Raphael's assistants, Baverio 
 Carroccio. Some of these, sketches of mythological 
 subjects, such, for instance, as the lovely drawing 
 96 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 known as the Toilet of Venus, in the British Museum, 
 may have formed part of the decorative series illus- 
 trating the Triumphs of Venus and Cupid which 
 Raphael designed for his friend Cardinal Bibbiena's 
 bathroom in the upper story of the Vatican. In his 
 letters to the absent Cardinal, Bembo alludes more 
 than once to this " stufetta " upon which Raphael 
 was engaged in the spring of 1516. The subjects 
 of these little pictures were chosenfby Bibbiena 
 himself and painted on a black and red ground in the 
 Pompeian style, enriched with devices of birds and 
 flowers and antique cameos. Unfortunately this 
 wonderful room, on which Cardinal and painter 
 lavished so much thought and pains, has been allowed 
 to suffer gross neglect and is still closed to the public. 
 Herr Dollmayr, however,' one of the latest historians 
 who obtained admission to its precincts, describes 
 the series as better preserved than the Loggie, and says 
 that although the paintings on the roof are irreparably 
 ruined, those on the walls retain much of their original 
 grace and elegance. 
 
 In the midst of this bewildering diversity of occu- 
 pations, Raphael produced one of his grandest and 
 most famous works, the cartoons for the tapestries 
 of the Sixtine Chapel. The subjects of these decora- 
 tive hangings were chosen by Leo X to complete the 
 chapel where Umbrian and Florentine masters had 
 painted Old Testament types and scenes from the 
 life of Christ. Michelangelo had adorned the roof 
 with the story of the Creation and the Fall of Man. 
 The Acts of the Apostles and the foundation of the 
 Church were the themes which Raphael was required 
 to illustrate, and which he set forth with greater force 
 and artistic perfection than had ever been done before. 
 The first of the series was finished in June 1515, 
 and the whole set was completed and sent to be 
 
 g 97 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 reproduced in Flanders by the end of the following 
 year. Three out of the ten cartoons were lost. The 
 other seven remained in the weaver's shop at Brussels, 
 cut into strips and pierced with holes, until in 1630 
 they were bought by Charles I. Since that time they 
 have been in England, first at Hampton Court and 
 then at South Kensington Museum, where their 
 presence has exerted a great and enduring influence 
 not only on successive generations of artists, but on 
 popular conceptions of Bible history during the last 
 two hundred years. Vasari declares that Raphael 
 painted the whole of the cartoons with his own hand. 
 Modern critics, on the contrary, assert that not one 
 of the series contains any trace of the master's brush- 
 work. In their present faded and mutilated condition 
 it is impossible to speak positively on this point, and 
 all that seems certain is that Francesco Penni had a 
 large share in the work, and that Giovanni da Udine 
 painted the birds arid shells, grasses and flowers in the 
 foreground of the pictures, as well as other decorative 
 details^ But in the grandeur and impressiveness of 
 the figures and the consummate art of the composition, 
 we recognize the presence of Raphael's genius. The 
 jatory is told with- the _ directness and ^simplicity _ol 
 Giotto, but with the science and mastery jwhich- had 
 been acquired by the artists of the Cinquecento., 
 j\U superfluous matter has been carefully eliminated 
 and the central thought stands out as clearly" and 
 forcibly as in the noblest classical art. The dramatic 
 vigour of the conception, the way in which the rapid 
 interchange of thought and the struggle of contending 
 passions and emotions are represented, are even more 
 striking than the admirable symmetry and marvellous 
 skill of the grouping. Certain subjects, the Miraculous 
 Draught of Fishes, the Charge to St. Peter (Pasce ovem), 
 and St. Paul preaching at Athens, are rendered with so 
 98 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 absolute a truth and fitness that it is impossible to 
 think of them in any other form. ..All the efforts and 
 conceptions of older masters seem to culminate in 
 this one great achievement of Raphael's prime. 
 Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, which 
 the young painter from Urbino had studied so atten- 
 tively in early days, and which he had lately seen 
 again on his short visit to Florence in 15 15, were 
 evidently in Raphael's mind when he designed the 
 Feed My Lambs and St. Paul at Athens. His master 
 Perugino's teaching, the clear skies and spacious 
 horizons of Umbria, came back to his thoughts as he 
 drew the idyllic landscape of the Lake of Genne- 
 sareth and its green and peaceful shores. His own 
 knowledge of architecture stood him in good stead 
 when he had to represent the temple courts at Lystra 
 and the columns and portico of the " Beautiful Gate " 
 at Jerusalem. In this last subject tradition came to his 
 help, and the massive spiral pillars which he intro- 
 duces were copied from a twisted column in St. 
 Peter's which was said to have been brought from 
 the Temple at Jerusalem. As usual, Raphael borrowed 
 .many details of his composition from Roman sarco- 
 phagi, and the group round the altar in the Sacrifice 
 of Lystra is directly copied from an antique bas-relief. 
 In a far higher sense he has endowed Christian ideas 
 and symbols with the beauty and freedom of Greek 
 art. In such noble and original creations as the Risen 
 Christ appearing to His Disciples on the seashore, 
 or the great Apostle of the Gentiles preaching to the 
 men of Athens on the hill of Mars, he has given 
 _m_. ideals of majesty and tenderness, of passion and 
 eloquence which can never be forgotten. 
 
 The extraordinary popularity of Raphael's cartoons 
 and the hold which they still retain on our imagination 
 and affection are due not only to their artistic merit, 
 
 99 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 but to the^closeaeaa-and accuracy with which the com- 
 position follows every detail of the Gospel story. 
 From this point of view they may be said to, reflect 
 the new spirit of inquiry and Bible-reading which was 
 abroad and which had already penetrated into the 
 precincts of the Vatican, through the influence of 
 humanists like Erasmus and Sadoleto. As in the 
 frescoes of the Stanze Raphael had clothed the creeds^, 
 of mediaeval Christendom and the ideals of the Renais- 
 sance with forms of immortal beauty, so in the cartoons 
 which he designed for the Sixtine Chapel he uncon- 
 sciously foreshadowed the teaching of Luther and the 
 coming Reformation. 
 
IX 
 
 THE LAST YEARS 
 1517-1520 
 
 THE cartoons mark the final stage of Raphael's 
 artistic development. From first to last his 
 career had been one of steady and continual 
 progress. He had gone from strength to strength, 
 learning new lessons and gaining fresh triumphs at 
 every step, borne along by that strength of will and 
 passionate striving after perfection which had marked 
 him from the beginning. The promise of his wonderful 
 youth had been fulfilled. He had emancipated himself 
 from the trammels of his early training and had suc- 
 cessively mastered the different problems of technical 
 art, the secrets of perspective, of anatomy, and colour- 
 ing. No living painter, not Michelangelo himself, 
 could surpass him in dramatic force, in the power of 
 giving life and reality to a narrative and of combining 
 unity of composition with variety of individual action 
 and emotion. Henceforth no heights were beyond 
 his reach. He stood without a rival in the painter's 
 art. Unfortunately just at this moment when brain 
 and hand were at their best, his activities were diverted 
 into a thousand different channels, and his time and 
 powers were frittered away in a multitude of labours 
 that were beyond the strength of any one man. 
 His creative genius was as fertile, his designs as 
 
 101 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 splendid as ever, but save in a few rare instances, 
 the execution of his conceptions was of necessity left 
 to assistants. And so in these last years a marked 
 decline became visible in his works. The paintings 
 that issued wholesale from his workshop were signed 
 with his name, but they bore little or no trace of his 
 hand. 
 
 The Madonna del Pesce, now in the Prado, was 
 painted for a Dominican church in Naples, at the 
 request of one of the painter's first patrons in Rome, 
 Cardinal Riario. The design of this enthroned 
 Virgin looking graciously down on the angel leading 
 the boy Tobias by the hand is admirable, but in the 
 execution we miss the charm of Raphael and recognize 
 the heavy hand and empty feeling of his assistants. 
 The same may be said of the graceful composition 
 known as the La Perla, in the same gallery. This 
 admired Holy Family was originally painted for 
 Castiglione's friend, Bishop Louis of Canossa, in 151 8, 
 and afterwards passed with the Gonzaga Collection to 
 England and thence into the possession of Philip IV 
 of Spain, who called it the pearl of his collection. 
 The celebrated picture of Christ bearing the Cross, 
 commonly termed Lo Spasimo di Sicilia, was destined 
 for an Olivetan monastery at Palermo, and was sold 
 by the monks in the seventeenth century to Philip IV 
 of Spain. Here the idea of Christ sinking under the 
 weight of the Cross and looking back over His shoulders 
 at His Mother, which became so favourite a motive in 
 later art, was evidently due to Raphael, but the execu- 
 tion of the work was left to Giulio Romano and his 
 assistants. The very inferior Visitation in the Prado 
 was ordered by the papal chamberlain Brancantonio 
 dell' Aquila, and probably executed by Penni. The 
 little picture of the Vision of Ezekiel in the Pitti was 
 painted for Count Ercolani of Bologna in 15 18, and 
 102 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 is interesting as an example of the curious way in 
 which Christian and pagan motives are blended 
 together. 
 
 Raphael evidently borrowed this fine design of 
 Jehovah riding on the eagle and ox and borne by 
 angels in his flight through space from a sarcophagus 
 in the Villa Medici, where Jove appears throned on 
 the clouds and supported by the figure of Ccelus. 
 But once more it is the hand of the scholar that we 
 recognize in the coarse forms and dark shadows. Two 
 larger altar-pieces now in the Louvre, the Madonna of 
 Francis I and the Archangel Michael, were ordered by 
 Leo X and taken to Fontainebleau by his nephew 
 Lorenzo dei Medici in 1518, as a present to Francis 
 I that summer. Both pictures were evidently designed 
 by Raphael. The charming motive of the joyous 
 Child springing up to meet His Mother, while a 
 kneeling angel crowns the Madonna's brows with a 
 wreath of flowers, and the great Archangel flashing 
 down from Heaven in shining armour and tramping 
 the dragon under his feet, clearly sprang from the 
 master's brain. But both works were ruined by the 
 hard metallic hues, hot flesh tints, and black shadows 
 employed by Giulio Romano. " I am heartily sorry," 
 wrote Sebastiano del Piombo to Michelangelo, " that 
 you were not in Rome to see the two pictures which 
 have been sent to France by the Prince of the, Syna- 
 gogue ! You could not conceive anything more 
 contrary to your ideas of art. The figures look as if 
 they had been blackened with smoke or cut out in 
 hard steel, and are drawn after a fashion of which 
 Leonardo the saddler must tell you more ! " And 
 bitter and spiteful as the writer invariably showed 
 himself in his jealousy of Raphael, it must be owned that 
 his judgment in this case was not far wrong. These 
 pictures, which were accepted by an uncritical age as 
 
 103 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 the work of Raphael, proved fatal to his reputation 
 in the eyes of a more enlightened generation. The 
 master was held responsible for the faults and failures 
 of his scholars, and it was not till Morelli and his 
 followers cleared the ground and helped us to dis- 
 tinguish between the two that his true greatness was 
 once more realized. 
 
 The last years of Raphael's life were literally crowded 
 with vast undertakings. Under his direction two 
 great decorative schemes were carried out by his 
 scholars. In the course of 151 8 the pavilion or loggia 
 of Chigi's villa, afterwards known as " La Farnesina," 
 was painted by Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni 
 with scenes from the myth of Cupid and Psyche, set 
 in wreaths of leaves and flowers on a blue ground. 
 A number of red-chalk drawings, chiefly by Giulio 
 Romano, are to be seen at Windsor, in the Louvre, 
 Albertina, and other collections, while one or two 
 pen-and-ink sketches — a Venus and Psyche at Oxford 
 and a Mercury in the museum of Cologne — by 
 Raphael's own hand are valuable as an indication of 
 the slight designs from which his pupils worked. The 
 frescoes themselves have suffered from exposure to 
 sun and air and were covered with a thick coat of 
 gaudy blues and reds by Carlo Maratta in the eighteenth 
 century. But enough of the original design is left to 
 show us the skill with which the difficulties of con- 
 struction were overcome and the loggia was trans- 
 formed into a garlanded bower hung with rich tapestries 
 and spread out under a blue sky. We can realize the 
 faery and poetic charm, the joy and brightness of the 
 sight which delighted the eyes of the people that 
 Christmas, when Chigi opened his villa doors and all 
 Rome flocked to see the latest miracle of Raphael's 
 imagination. Ev$n then, we learn, the detractor's 
 voice was raised and Sebastiano's friend the saddler 
 104 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 told Michelangelo that the ceiling of Chigi's loggia 
 was worse than the last Stanza and a positive disgrace 
 to Raphael ! 
 
 Towards the end of the same year the decoration 
 of the loggia on the upper story of the Vatican was 
 begun, and completed in the summer of 15 19. This 
 gallery, leading from the Stanze to the Belvedere 
 and reserved for the Pope's use, was decorated with 
 stucco mouldings in imitation of the grotteschi in 
 the Baths of Titus. The elegant series of delicate 
 arabesques, enriched with fruit and flowers, birds and 
 animals,* medallions and antique bas-reliefs in endless 
 variety, was executed by Giovanni da Udine from the 
 master's designs, and the vaulting of the arcades was 
 adorned with the forty-six small paintings known 
 as Raphael's Bible. As a matter of fact, none of 
 these were executed by the master, and the whole 
 series has been barbarously repainted, but in several 
 of the Old Testament subjects we recognize the hand 
 of Perino del Vaga, the accomplished young Florentine 
 who could best render the grace and charm of Raphael's 
 conceptions. Castiglione, in a letter written from 
 Rome in June .1519, speaks of the new Vatican loggia, 
 painted and ornamented with stuccoes in the antique 
 style, as being the work of Raphael, and perhaps 
 more beautiful than anything which has been seen 
 in modern times. The Venetian Michieli, who was also 
 in Rome at the time, is more accurate, and expressly 
 states that the paintings in the Pope's loggia were made 
 from designs by Raphael. To-day these once exquisite 
 decorations are in ruins. The stucco is crumbling 
 to pieces and the colour is scaling off the walls, but the 
 whole effect is still rich and brilliant. The architec- 
 ture and ornament, the paintings and the mosai c! 
 pavement of Delia Rob_b ia_.tiles all owed their origin 
 to the same brain, and the combination of these 
 
 105 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 several arts produced the finest and most complete 
 decorative work of the Renaissance. 
 
 This association of all the arts and crafts under one 
 master-mind was the most memorable achievement 
 of Raphael's closing years. A whole school had 
 sprung up under the influence of his genius. Archi- 
 tects and sculptors, painters, engravers, wood-carvers, 
 and mosaic workers were employed by him in building 
 and decorating churches and palaces. And all the 
 members of this vast workshop, Vasari tells us, lived in 
 perfect unity and concord, and " such harmony as 
 has never been known elsewhere. For Raphael himself 
 was so full of gentleness and goodness that even 
 animals loved him, and he taught and helped each one 
 of his scholars with a love which was that of a father 
 for his children. And when he went to Court, he 
 never left his house without being accompanied by 
 fifty painters, all able and excellent men, who thus 
 showed the honour in which they held him. In short, 
 he led the life, not of a painter, but of a prince." 
 " You walk as a general at the head of an army," was 
 the remark with which Michelangelo is said to have 
 greeted him one'day on his way to the Vatican. " And 
 you as an executioner going to the scaffold," replied 
 Raphael. 
 
 *■ A position of such exceptional distinction could 
 not fail to provoke the envy of less fortunate artists, 
 and a fierce rivalry sprang up between the followers 
 of Michelangelo and of Raphael. The great Florentine 
 himself was once heard to say that he owed all the 
 vexations and disappointments which had hindered 
 his work in Rome to the intrigues of Bramante and 
 Raphael, whom he associated with his old rival. But 
 although he might have utteired these words in a bitter 
 moment, he always recognized the genius of the master 
 of Urbino and praised him to others, even though he 
 106 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 told Condivi that Raphael owed his art less to nature 
 than to study. Raphael, on his part, never made any- 
 secret of his admiration for his illustrious rival, and 
 thanked God that he had been born in the days of 
 Michelangelo. But the jealousy of smaller men was 
 restrained by no fine feelings. Sebastiaho del Piombo, 
 more especially, could not forgive Raphael for having 
 been preferred to him by Agostino Chigi, and became 
 the bitterest enemy of his old friend. His letters 
 to Michelangelo abound not only in contemptuous 
 criticisms of the work executed in the rival bottega, 
 but in the basest insinuations and calumnies. On 
 one occasion he goes so far as openly to accuse Raphael 
 of robbing the Pope of three ducats a day in wages and 
 gilding, and declares that he is ready to prove these 
 charges before Cardinal dei Medici. But in the end 
 he was punished for his presumption, as we learn from 
 an anecdote recorded by Lodovico Dolce. Long 
 afterwards when Titian was in Rome, and Sebastiano, 
 who then held office in the papal household, was con- 
 ducting him through the Stanze, the great Venetian 
 paused before one of Raphael's frescoes which had 
 been damaged during the sack of Rome, and which 
 Sebastiano had been employed to restore, and asked the 
 name of the ignorant fool who had dared to tamper 
 with these magnificent creations ? " Upon which," 
 adds Dolce, " Sebastiano del Piombo became as livid 
 as lead itself." In Raphael's lifetime it was Sebastiano's 
 great ambition to be employed in the Vatican. At 
 length, to his great satisfaction, he obtained an order 
 from Cardinal dei Medici to execute an altar-piece 
 of the Raising of Lazarus for his cathedral city of 
 Narbonne, while at the same time Raphael was com- 
 missioned to paint another picture for the same church. 
 Sebastiano began his work at once and, with the help 
 of Michelangelo, had finished his picture within the 
 
 107 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 next few months, but declared that he would not 
 allow it to be seen, lest Raphael should borrow his 
 ideas. Raphael only smiled when these malignant 
 words were repeated to him, and rejoiced to hear that 
 he should have not only Sebastiano but Michelangelo 
 himself for his rival. In truth, he had neither time 
 nor thought to spare for the Cardinal's altar-piece. 
 The Pope was urging him to design frescoes for the 
 next Stanza, and a new set of tapestries for the Sixtine 
 Chapel. One day his Holiness begged him to deco- 
 rate his hunting-box at La Magliana, another he 
 asked him to design a medal in honour of his nephew 
 Lorenzo's wedding. When Cardinal Cibo gave a 
 performance of Ariosto's play, " I Suppositi," in the 
 Pope's honour Raphael was required to paint the 
 scenery. When the elephant presented to Leo X by 
 the King of Portugal died, it was Raphael again who 
 had to take its likeness, to please the Romans, who were 
 delighted with the animal for refusing to cross the 
 bridge of S. Angelo with the Pope's fool Baraballo on 
 its back. A life-size picture of the elephant was actu- 
 ally painted on the Vatican walls, probably by Giovanni 
 da Udine, but the inscription bore Raphael's name, 
 and the motto — " What Nature destroyed, Raphael of 
 Urbino restored with his art." 
 
 Meanwhile king and cardinals alike were clamouring 
 for pictures, and ambassadors and prelates from the 
 most powerful princes waited patiently at his doors 
 in the hope of being admitted for a few moments into 
 the great master's presence. When his intimate 
 friend, Cardinal Bibbiena, wrote from France begging 
 him to paint the portrait of Ascanio Colonna's fair 
 bride, Joanna of Aragon, as a gift for the Most Christian 
 King, he could only hand over the work to an assistant, 
 as he frankly told Alfonso d'Este. Isabella d'Este 
 waited four years for a little picture which had been 
 108 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 promised her, to be told by Castiglione in the end 
 that he was convinced the painter only worked at her 
 panel in his presence, and put it away as soon as his 
 back was turned. Her brother, the Duke of Ferrara, 
 tried caresses and threats by turn, and sent perpetual 
 envoys to harass the master and insist on the execution 
 of the work which he had ordered. Yet he obtained 
 nothing in the end. But Raphael could not help 
 himself. He was overburdened with work and pressed 
 on all sides by impatient patrons whose demands it 
 was impossible to satisfy. 
 
 In the midst of these overwhelming labours, the 
 master set to work on a new undertaking which would 
 have been enough to fill the lifetime of other men. 
 This was nothing less than a systematic survey of the 
 ruins of ancient Rome, illustrated with drawings of 
 the chief monuments. He divided the city into 
 fourteen regions, and with the help of a learned anti- 
 quarian, Andreas Fulvius, explored the first of these, 
 making drawings from ancient descriptions of buildings 
 that had been destroyed, and taking exact measure- 
 ments of those which remained. This priceless work 
 has perished, but the Latin report which Raphael 
 prepared with the help of Castiglione in the shape of 
 a letter to the Pope is still attached to the copy of 
 Calvi's translation of Vitruvius in the library at 
 Munich. This scheme excited the keenest interest 
 among the humanists in Rome, and the papal secretary, 
 Celio Calcagnini of Ferrara, who returned to Rome in 
 15 19, told his Hungarian friends in glowing words of 
 the great work which this wonderful youth, " the 
 first of living painters and most excellent of architects," 
 was preparing for the Pope. 
 
 " By digging out the foundations of ancient monu- 
 ments and restoring them according to the descriptions 
 of classical authors, he has filled Pope Leo and all 
 
 109 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Rome with such admiration that they look upon 
 him as a god sent down from Heaven tg restore the 
 Eternal City to its former majesty. And yet, far from 
 being puffed up with pride, he meets others in the 
 most friendly spirit and rejects no advice or criticism. 
 On the contrary, he is never better pleased than when 
 his opinion is doubted or disputed, and is always' eager 
 to learn, counting this to be the greatest joy of life." 
 Calcagnini goes on to tell how this wealthy young 
 man, the Pope's favourite painter, has actually 
 taken the old humanist, Fabio Calvi, into his own 
 house, the palace built by Bramante in the Borgo 
 Nuovo, near the Vatican, and acquired by Raphael 
 in 15 17, in order that he may expound Vitruvius to 
 him. This picture which the writer gives us of the 
 great master's kindness to the aged scholar, whom he 
 found at the age of eighty living on cabbage and lettuce 
 in a hole no better than the tub of Diogenes, and 
 cherished as tenderly as if he were his own father, 
 shows that Raphael had lost none of his old gentleness 
 and simplicity. But this very " gentilezza " proved 
 fatal to him. In his anxiety to please everyone 
 he overtaxed his strength, and at last his health gave 
 way under the tremendous strain of incessant pro- 
 duction. In the early part of the year 1520 his friends 
 noticed the unwonted melancholy that oppressed him. 
 But still he laboured with unceasing ardour, dividing 
 his time between the works at St. Peter's, which 
 required anxious attention, and Cardinal dei Medici's 
 altar-piece. After some hesitation, he chose the 
 Transfiguration for his subject and resolved, Vasari 
 tells us, to paint the whole picture with his own hand. 
 Sebastiano's Raising of Lazarus had been exhibited 
 at Christmas in the Cardinal's rooms, and he was 
 heard to boast that at least the figures were better 
 drawn than those in the arras for the Sixtine Chapel, 
 110 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 which had lately come from Flanders. Conscious 
 that Michelangelo had helped his rival, Raphael threw 
 all his powers into the work, and determined that this 
 time the picture should be worthy of his name. His 
 conception was a fine one. No one before him had 
 thought of combining the vision of Christ in glory 
 on the Mount with the vain efforts of the disciples 
 to heal the demoniac boy in the same picture. It was 
 one of the contrasts in which Raphael delighted, and 
 the painting would have been a masterpiece if he had 
 lived to finish it. But he only painted the upper part 
 — the transfigured Christ floating on the clouds of 
 heaven with Moses and Elias at his side. Then the 
 brush dropped from his hand, and his orphaned 
 scholars were left to finish the great work. 
 
 On the 20th of March he received Alfonso d'Este's 
 envoy, who had been vainly trying to obtain an inter- 
 view with him for months past, and with his wonted 
 courtesy promised to satisfy the Duke, and talked in 
 a friendly way of the best plan for curing smoking 
 chimneys. On the 24th he signed a contract for the 
 purchase of a piece of ground from the Canons of St. 
 Peter. Three days afterwards he fell ill of malarial 
 fever, caught, it is probable, on one of his archaeological 
 expeditions, and sank rapidly, worn out in body and 
 mind. But with characteristic tranquillity and 
 thoughtfulness he made his will, appointing two of 
 the chief officials in the papal household, Baldassare 
 Turini, the Datary, and the Chamberlain Brancan- 
 tonio dell' Aquila, to be his executors. He gave 
 directions for his burial in the Pantheon and left a 
 thousand ducats to endow a sepulchral chapel. Each 
 of his servants was to receive three hundred ducats, 
 and most of his property was bequeathed to his 
 relatives at Urbino, while his unfinished pictures and 
 drawings were left to his scholars Giulio Romano and 
 
 in 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Francesco Penni. On the evening of Good Friday, 
 the 6th of April, he passed away, having just com- 
 pleted his thirty-seventh year. The next day he lay 
 in state in the hall of the palace which his own hands 
 had decorated, with the unfinished Transfiguration at 
 the head of his bed, and the crowds who came to look 
 their last on the master's face burst into sobs and 
 tears at the sight of the dead painter and his living 
 work. At evening all the artists in Rome followed 
 him to the grave which he had chosen before the altar 
 of Our Lady under the Pantheon dome. 
 
 The consternation of the papal Court at the great 
 master's sudden and untimely end is described in 
 many letters written from Rome that Eastertide. 
 The Pope himself wept bitterly, and the walls of the 
 Vatican loggie which Raphael had decorated cracked 
 and seemed about to crumble to pieces. 
 
 " For the moment," wrote Pandolfo della Mirandola 
 to his illustrious friend, the Marchesa Isabella, " I have 
 but one thing to tell your Highness. This is the death 
 of Raphael of Urbino, who passed away last night, 
 that is to say, on the evening of Good Friday, leaving 
 this Court plunged in the most profound and universal 
 grief for the ruin of those high hopes that were enter- 
 tained of the great works that he would do, and which, 
 had he lived to realize them, would have been the 
 glory of the age. And indeed, as everyone says, we 
 had a right to expect the greatest things from him, 
 seeing those which he had already accomplished, and 
 the still grander works which he had begun. The 
 heavens have foretold this sad event by one of those 
 signs which marked the death of Christ, when the 
 rocks were opened, 'Lapides scissi sunt.' The Pope's 
 palace has cracked in such a manner that the building 
 is threatened with ruin, and his Holiness has fled 
 in terror from his rooms and taken shelter in those of 
 112 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 Pope Innocent VIII. Here we talk of nothing but the 
 death of this great man who has ended his first life 
 at the age of thirty-three. His second life, that 
 immortal fame which fears neither death nor time, 
 will endure for ever, both because of his works and of 
 the labours of the scholars who will write his praises 
 and who will find him an unfailing theme." 
 
 The Venetian scholar, Marc Antonio Michieli, 
 wrote in the same strain to his friends at home : 
 
 " On the night of Good Friday, that most gentle 
 and excellent of painters, Raphael of Urbino, died, to 
 the infinite grief of all men, but especially of the learned, 
 for whom, even more than for painters and architects, 
 he was preparing a plan of the old monuments of Rome, 
 with their forms and ornaments so correctly drawn 
 that to see this would have been to see the ancient 
 city. Now this glorious work is interrupted by the 
 hand of envious death, who has robbed us of this 
 youthful master at the age of thirty-four, on his own 
 birthday. The Pope himself is plunged in grief, and 
 during the fortnight of the painter's illness sent six 
 times to make inquiries and condole with him. Judge 
 by this what others have done ! . . . And indeed, a 
 most rare and excellent master has passed away, and 
 every gentle soul must grieve to think that he is gone. 
 HiSjbody has been honourably buried in the Rotunda, 
 and his spirit is doubtless gpne to gaze on those 
 heavenly mansions where there can be no decay. 
 Michelangelo is said to be ill in Florence. Tell our 
 Catena to take care, for this is a fatal time for great 
 painters." 
 
 Even Sebastiano del Piombo, Raphael's bitter 
 enemy, for once dropped his railing tone and remarked 
 in a letter to Michelangelo : " You will have heard 
 of the^death of that poor Raphael of Urbino, and the 
 news, I know, will have grieved you sorely. May God 
 
 H 113 
 
RAPHAEL 
 
 grant him pardon ! " The humanists who lamented 
 his premature death, and the friends who had loved 
 him, Castiglione and Tebaldeo, Ariosto and Celio 
 Calcagnini, poured forth a stream of sonnets and elegies 
 to his memory, and Bembo composed an elegant 
 Latin epitaph which was inscribed upon the wall above 
 his tomb in the Pantheon. 
 
 " God has taken from us what he had given to no 
 other mortal," were Isabella d'Este's words when she 
 received the news of Raphael's death. Her judgment 
 was confirmed twenty years afterwards by Michel- 
 angelo's devoted scholar and admirer, Giorgio Vasari. 
 
 " O most happy and thrice blessed spirit — whom 
 all men delight to praise ! " he exclaims at the close 
 of his life of Raphael, " whose deeds everyone celebrates, 
 and whose smallest drawing is admired and sought 
 after. ... In this painter, indeed, art, colouring, and 
 invention were carried to a perfection which we could 
 hardly hope to see, and no other master can ever 
 dream of surpassing him." 
 
 But more eloquent in its simplicity than any of these 
 splendid tributes to the painter's memory was the 
 cry that broke from the lips of Castiglione when he came 
 back to Rome three months after Raphael's death, and 
 found himself without -his friend. "I am well in 
 health," he wrote to his mother at Mantua, " but can 
 hardly believe that I am in Rome, now that my poor 
 Raphael is no longer here. May God keep that 
 blessed soul ! " 
 
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